Angel Israfel
by Asha3
Summary: Alternate Universe. Everything she did, she hoped it was enough. And by the the time the masquerade ended, she hoped he will still forgive her. Inuyasha: D.N.Angel Style. InuKag. Implied MiroSan.
1. Prelude

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all related characters belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

A/N: I was reading some fanfictions and came across a very interesting way of writing… the authors summarized the main plot of their fics into a commercial. Sort of like those movie previews you saw in theaters…

This is a commercial I wrote for a fanfic I had written. Not the original chapter one, I've decided to put on an introduction before the whole story start. That's why I posted this separately. A kind of prologue/summary/previews thingie… just enough to tickled your imagination. I don't know if this could be considered a spoiler or not… it doesn't reveal enough plot.

* * *

**IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: **The following contains SPOILER from some further chapters. If that sorts of things ANNOYED you, just Go to the next chapter where the original chapter 1 is.

* * *

**The Angel ISRAFEL **

**-THE TRAILER-**

* * *

**_When the world is full of deceit…. _**

* * *

_'They are enchanted artifacts. Do not be deceived by its beauty, you have to purify them as soon as you touch them, Kagome,'_

* * *

**_When a name was at risk…_**

* * *

"YOU DID WHAAATTT?!" 

"I told you it'll be a fair trade…. Capture this thief… this ISRAFEL for me, Inuyasha, _then_ I'll give you the negatives."

* * *

**_When beauty enchanted those who were innocent, _**

* * *

"She sounded very different from the woman earlier." 

The hanyou raised his eyebrow at that. "Define 'different'."

"…She didn't think of anyone as her enemy like before. Some people were confused by her sudden change of personality."

* * *

**_… and turning them against the one they care... _**

* * *

Fears wrapped Kagome's heart, "Miroku… where's Sango?" 

His eyes turned painful, "I tried to stop her, but she-"

The sentence was cut by Inuyasha's loud growl from somewhere among the riot, "Dammit, Sango! Snap out of it!"

The young miko saw Inuyasha…

In front of him was Sango, eyes dull, like she was being hypnotized. The white sword in her hands dripping with fresh blood.

Kagome went pale.

* * *

**_When one rises to take the inherited duty… _**

* * *

Kaede-_baa-chan_ came from her father's lineage. Her duty as Israfel came through that lineage. 

... the duty automatically fell upon Kagome's shoulders. She was the direct successor; the oldest child of the Higurashi family main branch.

Don't get her wrong, Kagome didn't blame her father…. She accepted and tolerated her obligations, but that was the end of it. She never said she that she would do it with joy.

* * *

**_When centuries old archenemies finally encountered each others… _**

* * *

"You've heard of him, he gave Mrs. Cryheart _'The Pride of China',_" 

"So he's your enemy? You're fighting this guy? Why didn't you just tell the police?!"

"We've been fighting them for ages, this is our duty."

"We? Are you in some kind of organization? Who is this guy? What do you mean by '_them_'?"

* * *

**_When old rivalries brought threat to the perfect masquerade… _**

* * *

"Kikyou… what are you doing here?!" 

"I come to watch your raid," the older girl tossed her elegant black hair over her shoulder. "You screwed things up like always."

"I don't care what you think,"

"Say what you want, Kagome. But if you fail this mission, I'll make sure Israfel will never fly again."

* * *

**_Now the battle has finally begun… _**

* * *

"**_You_**!" Inuyasha hissed. 

"Don't you just stand there! Get out of here!" she hissed back.

"Are you crazy?! You can't fight **_that_** alone!"

"Yes, I can! This is **_my_** fight! I don't want anyone to get hurt - Get out of here!"

"What do you mean it was your fight?!" Clearly the hanyou was frustrated, "**_It_** attacked **_me_**! This is **_my_** fight!"

* * *

**_Within was pain… _**

* * *

"You shot her." the hanyou stated coldly. 

Israfel turned her back to him, "I had no choice."

"So you will kill an innocent because you don't have a choice?!" he barked back.

* * *

**_… and betrayal… _**

* * *

"Thank you," she offered a small smile. 

He quickly turned his back to her and snorted dismissively, "Keh!"

When he could no longer see her face, her smile faded. She felt guilty.

Great, just when their relationship was starting to get better, she had to betray him.

Kagome felt her stomach churned painfully.

* * *

**_Will the Angel Fall? _**

* * *

"Inuyasha… I'm sorry."

* * *

**_What would you do for the one you care the most? _**

* * *

"I want to be forgiven…"

* * *

**_Let magic play… _**

* * *

"_Wings… How in the seven hells has she grown wings!" _

* * *

**_It's time for ISRAFEL to fly._**

* * *

A/N: Well, yes, that's it for the prologue. Likey? Likey? Heheheh. I apoligize if there was some language errors, English is not my first language. I know there might be some strange phrases and idioms coz I have no BETA for this fic. Hope you enjoy and please review 


	2. Successor of Witch

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all related characters belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

AN: Howdie! This is my first try to publish my Inuyasha fanfic. I need something to do on my six weeks holiday. I had actually planned the whole rough plots, this story was estimated to have 20 chapters, give or take a few more depending on my mood when I'm writing it. Hehe. Lastly, I apologize if some of my sentence sounded weird, that's because English is not my first language. I'm looking for a beta-reader right now, if any of you was interested feel free to e-mail me. I hope you'll enjoy this fic, don't forget to REVIEW!

* * *

**The Angel ISRAFEL **

**Chapter 1 **

**"The Successor of Witch"**

* * *

_Dear Moriyama-san, _

_When the enamored moon __finally __blushes for the Spring lastest seven, the heavens' forgotten squire will posses The Successor of Witch and end the eternal cycle of inherited duty. _

_Sincerely, _

**_ISRAFEL _**

* * *

It looked like another normal night. It was cloudless, rather bright for it was a full moon making the stars looked dull, and soft fuzzy winds blew occasionally. The night was as normal as it could get, if you are not paying a little more attention to the little activity that was taking hold on one of the Lucrecia National Museum. 

Police cars were packed together in the parking lot, criss-crossing messily due to their rushing arrival. Sirens roared, and spotlights were out searching the dark sky. Almost half of the towns-people gathered across the police line. People talked to each other, speech clashing against speech making a horrible arrangement when they mixed with the ear-splitting siren.

"Over there!" A man cried out. He pointed the museum's roof, just above the huge emblem that was crafted on the very top of the three stories building. "_Israfel the Thief_ is over there!"

All the lights instantly focused at that particular part of the museum. However, the one they were searching for had already moved. **_Israfel _**as the man had referred was falling down the building in a perfect flips, like the one you could only see in the international diving contest or a gymnasium competition, and then landed gracefully on the second floor's veranda.

"She's planning to jump off the building!" shouted a man that appeared to be on his late fifties from his position inside an opened ambulance. He was a small man and a bit bald on the head. He eyed the figure that was jumping from veranda to the roof of a huge resident beside it.

"Commander Moriyama, she's getting away!" cried his subordinates.

Myoga Moriyama looked at his broken leg. If he had not gotten injured, he could be chasing the thief right now. Dmn Israfel and her tricks! He ordered some of his units to continue chasing her, but he already knew that it was futile. This particular thief was not ordinary; he could have sworn that the girl could disappear.

Yes, yes, Israfel was a girl, possibly even a woman. It was sort of obvious from her clothes that showed her outlines. She always wears a dark color of what was seemed to be a crossover between a ninja outfit and a long coat. Her face covered with the same colored cloth.

She is also happened to be the most famous Thief around, ever since she had started her 'rampage' not just a month ago.

Her movement was flexible, agile, and not to mention graceful. It's easy to assume that she mastered gymnasium well.

But aside from the three facts given above, everything about her remained a mystery.

"I'm too old for this…," Myoga sighed. He did not like this situation. The ISRAFEL case was transferred to him two weeks ago. This was only his third time chasing the thief, and she always got away smoothly.

This time, however, he was too eager to end his little problem; this case was worsening his already threatened reputation. In his youth, he was known for his ability to solve any case within a month, and two weeks of fooling around chasing a thief was too much for his taste. His unusually impatiens had leaded him into one of her traps, and now he had a broken leg and injured pride.

Nope, he didn't like the situation at all. He obviously could not continue his chase and most likely would be replaced. His reputation was doomed.

"Commander who would you like to inform that you'll be taken to a hospital?" one of his subordinate asked.

Myoga sighed mentally while imagining his daughter-in-law and her two sons. Actually, they are not EXACTLY his in-laws. He was a second cousin from the brother-in-law of their grandfather-in-law or something like that. Sometimes he could get very lost if he thought about it too seriously. He dared to say that if they did not happened to live in the same town, they'll hardly get this _'close'_ _… _If that's the right word; he remembered his youngest grandson-in-law.

Out of the blue, an idea popped up into his head. Wait… may be he COULD do something to save his reputation. Practically, the wheel in his old commander's head was turning. There WAS a way to save his reputation! He looked at the policeman that was his subordinate in front of him.

"Sir?" the man asked.

Myoga decided he could just run his crazy plan ahead. He was consciously aware that it was a bit cowardly, but saving his reputation was in the front line right now. "Please inform Inuyasha I would like to talk to him tomorrow," he answered.

His subordinate nodded and rang the hanyou. Even from two meters away the old commader could clearly hear the unpleasant yelling of his rather grumpy grandson-in-law. Oh well, the damage was done. Now, if he could just find someone to retrieve the _forbidden_ files in his desk, the hanyou might be more willing to cooperate with his plan.

* * *

Again, she was jumping from the top of one house to another. Again, her heart was beating fast despite the fact that she had managed to get away from the last police unit that was chasing her. Again, she was thanking years of gymnastic trainings and Kaede's intense lesson. And again, she had succeeded stealing another artifact. 

It was a gold bangle this time; _the_ _Successor of Witch_. It has beautiful ornaments that looked like a hibiscus. Every petal of the flowers was layered with a crimson colored glass plate. The bangle looked innocent, like every other things she had stolen, but she knows better.

Her gaze unfocused as her legs automatically jumped from roof to roof, making her way home. Her body had known the way really well by now; her mother had made sure of that so she could find her way home even blindfolded.

_'You have to purify them as soon as you touch them, Kagome,' _Kaede, her grandma had said. _'If you think the dark magic is too strong to touch, you have permission to put a sealing spell on it and bring them home quickly, and we will purify them later..' _

It was said that the one who wear the bangle will get nightmares about dying in fire. Her mother had told her that it was once belong to a European princess that lived in the medieval era. Rumor said she was a witch, and the penalty for performing sorcery at that age was being burnt to death. She died miserably, and the irony is that she was never a witch; the rumor had been a complete lie.

The dark magic on the bangle is not strong, and she had been trained hundreds of time to deal with that sort of magic. Overall, the 'job' was easy this time.

_'We could not leave the things unprotected. Enchanted things tends to be weak of any sorts of negative energies and thoughts, it could easily be corrupted again. We have no choice but to take them, and hopefully they'll become steadily neutral someday,'_ her grandmother had told her in her lecture the night before her first 'performance'.

She jumped her way up the shrine steps that was her home. Her father's side of the family had lived in shrines for generations, and had been doing thievery business since the warring states period, which was roughly 500 years ago. Kagome couldn't imagine how her family never got caught; but then again, her family did have magic. Not just miko powers, it was a complicated combination of eastern and western (either black and white) magic. The variety of their magic reached about two hundreds incantation and prayers. Kagome haven't even learned half of them, and Kaede only mastered about one-hundred-and fifty, the rest was written in scrolls that were kept under an anti-aging spell.

As she reached the top of the stairs she was greeted by her teenage younger brother. "Grandpa's furious, _nee-chan_," said the black-haired boy somewhat amusedly.

She met his gaze and laughed dryly, "I messed up again, didn't I? What happened?"

Souta Higurashi grinned widely, "Personally, I thought it was cool, but grandpa obviously was not pleased that you had broken that short man's leg."

Kagome slapped her forehead, "I thought I heard someone walked over that illusion pavement…," she mumbled. She had meant to distract her opponents into another escape road. The only problem is; there was no other way. So she decided to 'make' one, using illusions that only lasted a few minutes. She hadn't actually thought that somebody would walk on the non-existing glass-pavement. Wait… short man… "Don't tell me it's the commander?"

Her brother's grin grew. "Bingo!"

Kagome sighed. She had done it again. She didn't know why she always messed up the 'job'. "I'm tired," she finally said, "I have classes tomorrow, please tell grandpa that he can chew me out later." She got rid of the indigo cloth that covered her face, her thick midnight hair swaying around her shoulders, but she hardly noticed.

"Don't worry about him. Mother made it clear that if anyone was furious, it should be Kaede-baa-chan."

Kagome's stormy eyes grew wide, "Oh gosh! She's not mad, is she?"

Fortunately Souta shook his head, "Nah, she said that father had also messed up once in a while after he took over the job."

Kagome sighed in relief. "Good. I'm off to bed, why are you still up this late anyway?"

"Tomorrow's class-meeting, I'll just sleep through the hours if I don't have a game."

Kagome moaned, "I missed Junior-High!"

"G'night, sis!" he called as he watched her scrambled into the house

Kagome climbed the stairs rather heavily, with the exact opposite of the gracefulness she had shown not just an hour ago. Firstly, she put her newest 'raid' inside the box under her bed. She would bring it to her family secret heirloom tomorrow, or ask Kaede to do it for her. She changed into her pajamas quickly, and then just sunk down her bed with an 'Oof'.

She flipped to her back, and stared at the ceiling. _'I hope Moriyama-san wasn't hurt too badly.'_ She thought. She never meant to hurt anybody, but she seemed to have the talent for making foolish plan that turned into a deadly trap. That was what she called a 'messed up'.

_'I have to submit my drawings tomorrow!' _she suddenly realized. Oh crap. Then she remembered that Eri had her sketch book saying that she would like to draw some of the drawings in it. Why did she give Eri the book anyway?

She rolled to her side and closed her eyes. _'I'm too tired to think. Screw my drawings; if I got kicked out of the university I'll blame my father's lineage.'_ With that last thought she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**_BEB BEB BEB BEB – BEB BEB BEB BEB – BEB BEB BEB BEB – _**

Kagome groaned. Eyes still closed, she got off her bed to her desk on the other side of her bed room, almost tripped on her chair. Ignoring the pain on her toe, she reached her alarm clock then turned the annoying tone off.

She was just about to go back to bed, but knew that the distance between her bed and the bathroom was roughly the same. She yawned hugely and stretched, finally opening her eyes. Maybe she should not be late today. Her teacher had made it clear to her that she would be suspended if she kept her habit. She yawned again; this time was not as huge. Rubbing her eyes, she stumbled to her bathroom.

_"Hmm… a bath or a shower?"_ thought Kagome. She really needs a bath; her last night's activity involved a lot of adrenaline. But it was not a very good idea; she couldn't risk falling asleep while bathing.

She struggled with her pajamas buttons, her fingers still clumsy due to sleep. After undressing, she got in to the shower. She was still sleepy, so she purposely set the temperature low, too low for a morning shower….

"Eeeee! COLD!" Her shriek could be heard all the way to the kitchen.

Half an hour later, a very refreshed Kagome sat down the dinning table, school bag over one shoulder. "Good morning!" she greeted cheerfully.

Her mom smiled to her. "Good morning, Kagome! I'm sorry I couldn't wait for you last night. How's the job? I take it there wasn't too much trouble?"

"I'm fine, mama!" replied Kagome in a cheerful tone. She thought about the bangle that was now stored safely under her bed. "I have the item up in my room, I'll take it down to the basement later."

"Of course, dear!" her mother replied with an everlasting smile.

The thief-turned-college girl munched her breakfast happily while eying her brother. He was playing with Buyo, their family cat. He probably had finished his meal. "Souta, won't you be late?" she asked absentmindedly.

The fourteen-year-old boy just gave her a familiar grin that reminded her to a certain someone; someone whom sometimes made Kagome wanted to pull all her hair off. Someone her brother worshiped. She resisted the urge to punch something.

The boy got off his chair, "I'll go now, bye everyone!" He received his lunchbox from his mother. Halfway to the door, he turned back to his sister, "Oh _nee-chan_, say hello to Inu_-no-nii-chan_ for me!" then trailed away.

Kagome groaned.

Mrs. Higurashi kept smiling, "I take it you are going to be in the restaurant today?" she asked about her daughter's part-time job.

"Yea, just call me if you need anything. Sango won't mind."

Kagome looked out of the kitchen's window and spotted her grandpa marching his way towards the house. Supposedly he had finished his morning prayer in the shrine. She quickly stuffed the rest of her tuna sandwich into her mouth and drank her orange juice.

She stood up and then pecked her mother, "Grandpa's on his way, I better go now." She strolled out the kitchen, through a different door than her grandpa. She was definitely not in the mood for his wrath.

On her way to the shrine steps she met Kaede. "Kaede_-baa-chan_!" she greeted.

The old woman paused sweeping the stone pavement and looked up to her grand daughter. "Good day, Kagome. I want to say that I was proud of you last night," she said kindly.

Different from his grandpa who came from her mother's side of the family, Kaede-_baa-chan_ came from her father's lineage. Her duty as Israfel came through that lineage. Since Higurashi Shuichi, Kagome's father, obviously could not continue the family's tradition anylonger; the duty automatically was inherited Kagome. She was the direct successor; the oldest child of the Higurashi family main branch.

Don't get her wrong, Kagome didn't blame her father, she accepted her duty as Israfel, but that didn't make her enjoy stealing things. She accepted and tolerated, end of story. However, she did not tell anyone about her apprehension towards the whole thievery duty. Kagome wanted to disappoint no one, especially since her other grandfather was overly excited about the idea.

Kagome gave the old woman what she hoped to be a genuine smile, "I'm sorry I messed up again. Was there any news of Moriyama-san's injury? I hope he's not hurt badly…."

"Don't worry about him, Kagome," Kaede replied.

The young miko raised her eyebrows. That's it? No scolding, or even a speech of being more careful next time? Odd. Kagome shook her head, banishing her thoughts. "I'm off to the campus; bye baa-chan!" She continued her path down the shrine steps.

Kaede nodded and resumed sweeping the pavement. "Farewell, child! Your mother will call if something came up!"

Kagome resisted a groan. "Can't wait!" she replied, waving her hand as a goodbye. God, she hoped she sounded cheerful. The young miko sighed mentally, and then pointed her shoes towards her university.

* * *

Inuyasha burst into his not-exactly-grandpa-in-law's private hospital wing that afternoon. The hanyou was so ready to give the old man a piece of his mind about calling a person on two in the morning just to inform that he wanted a talk. But when he entered the room, the head of the town was inside. Shocked, he temporary forgot his anger. 

"Ah, there you are, Inuyasha!" his grandfather-in-law, Myouga Moriyama, greeted happily. The old man was a bit too happy; the alarm in Inuyasha's head went off.

The Mayor (as he was called by everyone because his secretary was the only one who knew his real name) looked at Inuyasha with a strange look. If the hanyou didn't know better he'd said the man was studying him. "So this is you grandson, Moriyama-san?" asked the Mayor with a smile.

The police commander nodded eagerly, "Yes, this is my grandson, Takahashi Inuyasha."

The Mayor walked up to him and they shook hands. "Pleased too meet you, Inuyasha_-kun_. Your grandpa was about to tell you his idea, I trust that we'll meet again soon."

Inuyasha blinked a couple of times before giving an intelligent reply, "Huh? Err… yeah, sure."

The Mayor smiled knowingly at him as he was leaving the room.

The hanyou was in daze for a while before he remembered the reason he came. He turned sharply to the little old man (who gave a squeak) and was beside the bed instantly, claws extended in a threatening way. "You better started talking _jiji_, I'm not exactly in the happiest mood."

Myouga laugh nervously, "Haha- Inuyasha you know I've been working on the Israfel Case, don't you?"

Still not retrieving his claws, Inuyasha raised his eyebrows, "Everybody knows that. I say you're just playing around, I heard that you broke your leg because you ran straight into one of her trap."

Myouga was fingering something under his pillow, but Inuyasha was too distracted with the next sentence to actually realize that. "Yeah, I obviously cannot continue chasing her…." The old man draw a deep breath, this was so going to get his collar grabbed. "So I told the Mayor that you I'm passing the job to you."

Inuyasha had to process that bit of information for awhile before his brains finally clicked. "YOU DID WHAAATTT!" his hand grabbed the old-man's collar, not caring that his leg was tied off the bed with a cloth, and making his position very ridiculous.

The hanyou continued to shout, "What makes you think that I WOULD do that for you!"

"Because it would be just fair…." The old man replied calmly, a bit _too_ calmly.

The Hanyou blinked and released his grandfather's collar.

Myoga pulled a VERY thick brown envelope from under his pillow. "I considered it a fair trade because I'm offering you all I have."

Inuyasha snatched the envelope, then started to laugh out loud. "What's this? You're paying ME? Have you forgotten that _Oyaji_ inherited a large amount of those when he died? I could probably buy this entire town!"

Myouga puffed his cheeks. "You're not allowed that possessions until you're steadily married," he pointed.

Inuyasha's laugh died down, "Yeah, but I'm allowed to take its monthly interest! THAT's still enough for me to buy a new car every month!"

"I'm not offering money; you might want to look what's inside."

Inuyasha shrugged his shoulder and complied with the old-man's request, half believed when he said that he was not giving him money. "What's this?" He pulled a piece of photograph. His eyes narrowed; the picture looked familiar to him.

It was a photo of a three year old boy. The boy was in the middle of getting into a pink bath tub. Completely nude. The boy had a long silvery-white hair and –

"What the hell!" the hanyou slammed the photograph down Myoga's bed. "H-h-h-how did you get t-t-this!" he sputtered the last, trembling; whether in fear of in anger only he and God knows.

Myoga grinned "You forgot that your mother used to send me your photos when you're a pup…." He was enjoying this despite the fact that he was about to have his collar grabbed again.

Inuyasha quickly scanned through the thick bundle of the photos, and found them to be a very _very_ disturbing collection. He thought he had gotten rid all of those! He wasted no time to start ripping them to tiny pieces.

Myoga's grin got bigger, "You know it's no use, I actually asked your mom to sent me the film rolls so I could printed them as much as I can-"

Inuyasha grabbed the bald-man's collar again, "Give – me – the – negatives!" he barked each word.

"I told you it'll be a fair trade…," Myouga spoke as-a-matter-of-factly, despite his crooked position. "You wouldn't want people gossiping about how the youngest son of the Takahashi & Sons CEO, the mysterious younger brother of _THE_ Sesshoumaru, used to be taking a bath in a cute pink tub when he was pup, now would you?"

Inuyasha looked at the man in horror. "You wouldn't dare-!"

Myoga's smile turned into a proud one, "Try me. You'll be surprised how much a desperate old flea like me is willing to do for saving his reputation…. Capture this girl for me, Inuyasha, and then I'll give you the negatives."

Inuyasha – was – stuck. And they both knew it. With a strangled cry the hanyou release his annoying grandfather-in-law, and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him so hard that it practically could be heard from three stories up.

Myoga adjusted his collar calmly, still grinning from ear to ear. "That went well…." he commented as he continued to read his forgotten newspaper.

** TBC **

* * *

** Today's Artifact **

I didn't find a phrase that suitable enough that could name an artifact AND fits the chapter's theme. So I used _"The Successor of Witch" _it was supposed to be a song title. Actually, if you played the RPG "Final Fantasy VIII" You'll know which song I was talking about. The original name I used for the artifact's name was "Maiden's Band" then I changed it to "The Successor of Onus" it sounded equally weird and finally I change it into "The Successor of Witch" and adjusted the background story. Personally, I think the name was a bit scary.

* * *

**Translations **

Miko : Shinto priestess

Nee-chan (short terms of 'onee-chan') : sister

Nii-chan (short term of 'onii-chan') : brother

Baa-chan (short terms of 'obaa-chan') : grandmother

Jii-chan (short terms of 'ojii-chan') : grandfather _Jiji_ was the ruder terms

Hanyou : half-demon

Oyaji : a rude term to call father.

* * *

** Ramblings **

I decided to take my time to write this fanfic. So I'm focusing in one artifact every chapter, if there is more, they might be stolen at the same time, or I just didn't write the others in details. I'm sick on rushing my stories, so this time I'm going nice and slow, and probably will make some people bored. I want to actually take my time and write the story in depth, like one of my friends used to advise me. At that time I was too afraid to lose my ideas if I didn't write them ASAP. Maybe that's why I don't really bother to set the details of this story just yet, I figured it will be more fun to think about it as I write. . I made a commitment to myself to finish one chapter every week.

* * *

Next Chapter's artifact is **"The Pride of China" **and it was a sculpture. 

Now, **REVIEW pweeeaaazz! **


	3. Pride of China

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all related characters belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

AN: Well I'm back with chapter two. At first, I was confused on how to start this chapter, I didn't originally plan that this chapter will be on the day after the first chap, but I figured that some things had to be explained further. I was torn between making a new chapter or sticking with my previous idea, I decided that I could not leave them both, so I mixed and combined, thus explained the seventeen pages long. I don't know why I'm complaining, though. Oh, I shouldn't bother you with my own problems. Hehe. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and don't forget to REVIEW!

* * *

**Angel Israfel **

**Chapter 2 **

**"The Pride of China" **

* * *

_Dear police fellows, _

_The tall and the short traveller of time were looking up to Summer's finest diamond dust as the angel arrived to relieve **The Pride of China** of The Cryheart Mansion form its eternal war. _

_Sincerely, _

**_ISRAFEL _**

P.S. _Sorry for your commander's leg._

* * *

Kagome put her hand in front of her mouth and stifled a yawn; staring dazedly to the whiteboard. She was trying really hard not to fall asleep in the middle of her _Literature_ lecture, but when you got a professor that seemed oblivious to other living creatures when he began his rant, you would find your attention strayed more than you're planning to do. 

"And then Kaguya-hime asked each of them to find her impossibly-rare-artifacts as a wedding gift. One of them is the fire-rat coat that…." Her professor continued to rant and rant and rant…. Kagome had given up paying attention ten minutes ago and now concentrating on keeping her eyes open. She already had a bad reputation for her late habit.

She never like studying Myth, and sometimes she wondered why she went into an art college if she had already known that she would have Literature. She was fed up by her grandfather's rant about _kappa-mummies_ at home, and now she had them in school too.

Her cell-phone vibrated in her jeans pocket. Briefly, she glanced to her professor, just making sure that he was still lost in his own private imagination, before pulling it out.

A text-message from Sango, _We r shrt of minced beef. Could u picked up some frm the supermarket bf u come?_

Sango was the owner of the small restaurant in which she worked as a part-timer. They met in Higurashi shrine last New Year and instantly became friends. When the older girl had found out that about Kagome's little job hunting, Sango simply offered a position in her restaurant. It's not that Kagome needed the money, more like she really need to get out of her house in the afternoon. It's either find a part-time job, or hunting down information for her next target.

She checked her wallet to see whether she had enough cash. She did. Quickly, she typed her answer and sent her reply. She couldn't help but sighed in relief; the later she got to the restaurant, the later she had to meet Inuyasha.

Inuyasha was the co-owner of Sango's restaurant. Kagome met the hanyou just as she started her part-time job. They had been on each other's throat ever since then.

He worked in the restaurant just like Sango, though Kagome wondered why. It couldn't be for the money, he owned the restaurant, not to mention that he was awfully rich. She did not understand why Sango let him, either. Inuyasha could not cook, could not clean, and he could not take orders because he would upset half the customers to the point of no return in no time. But he could make a good coffee; a _very_ good coffee; that Kagome and Sango actually _willing_ to bribe him to make one for them. The other thing is, though she hated to admit it, the restaurant was extremely crowded whenever he was there, especially with girls. Obviously being the younger brother of a _Women's Weekly most eligible bachelor _helped. Not that their customers knew about that little detail, Kagome was just emphasizing the fact that the hanyou was not bad looking at all.

**_BRIIIIINNNNNGGGG! _**

Kagome cheered silently. She watched impatiently as the senile professor made his exit in an unbelievable amount of slowness. In her old school, it was considered impolite to walk out of class if your teacher was still inside, after twelve years she had taken a habit out of it.

When he was gone, Kagome happily shouldered her bag and ran out of the door. She was heading to her locker when she heard her name called.

"KAGOME!"

Kagome turned and smiled to the energetic girl, "Eri! How's your perspective test?"

Eri smiled back, "Not as bad as I thought! Your drawings really helped! Oh, that reminds me," she trailed off for a bit, and struggled with the contents of her large paper bag. She pulled out an A3-sized sketch book, "Here's your book, I realized you had some drawings that Prof. Watanabe asked; I hope you don't mind that I took liberty on submitting them for you."

Kagome beamed at the girl, "Thank you! I was about to ask your favor on that, because I really had to run now!"

Eri raised her eyebrow, "Did Inuyasha complain that they were short of instant ramen again?"

"No, but Sango asked me to buy some minced beef."

Eri cringed at that; she was a vegetarian after all. "Well, I gotta go too. My boyfriend is taking me for a dinner tonight."

"That's wonderful! You still have to introduce him to me, though!" Kagome teased.

Eri blushed prettily, before hugging her friend. "Bye, Kagome! See you on Monday!"

Kagome watched her energetic friend go with a smile. She turned back her attention to her locker, did the combination, and started filling her bag. She never kept much in her locker and determined to empty it every weekend, so her bag was always extra heavy in Friday afternoon and Monday morning.

After finishing her task, she left the university and headed to the nearest supermarket.

* * *

The restaurant was named **_The Sengoku Jidai_**. Despite the name, it was rather modernly decorated, and even sold western foods, but their ramen and udon was the best in town. 

Kagome slid the glass door open and was greeted with a shout. "HENTAI!" She winced as she dodged a flying sandal.

"But, Sango: I'm innocent! I swear my hand was cursed!" said a man's voice, though it sounded more like he was pleading at the moment.

Kagome stifled her giggle as she witnessed Sango beating a man wearing a purple houshi outfit with a mop.

"You **_thwack_** sick **_thwack_** perverted **_thwack_** Houshi! Go back to the kitchen, stay there, and DO your job!" the pony tailed girl screamed while kept bruising her chef.

The said chef acknowledged Kagome's presence and now turned his pleas to her, "Kagome-sama! Ouch! Please tell Sango I intended no harm! Ouch!" he dodged Sango's next attack, but that only enraged the raging girl further.

Kagome shook her head helplessly, "Sango, I think you'd hit him enough this time. Just let the man do his job."

Sango looked up to her friend and suddenly she released the poor man, sending him to the floor. "Kagome! Thank god you're here!" her attitude changed 180 degrees as she saw her best friend.

Kagome smiled back then gave the poor man her grocery bag, "Here, Miroku-sama; so you can continue cooking!"

Miroku grinned, showing a perfect line of white teeth. "Thank you, Kagome-sama! Now before I returned to my tasks, will you do the honor of bea…"

Sango's expression darkened, "Houshi-sama – kitchen – now!"

Kagome giggled as she could swear she had heard the houshi squeaked as he rushed to the kitchen. She turned to Sango, "Me still says that you're too hard to him."

Her friend massaged her nose bridge as she replied, "And me still thinks that that the man needs to learn his lesson."

Kagome giggled again as she went to the changing room. Those who worked in their restaurant were wearing a warring era outfit, it was sort of a cosplay, and the customers seemed to like it. That's why Sango was wearing a pink yukata, and Miroku was wearing a monk's outfit. Her uniform was a short yukata with blue and silver color, forming wavy patterns.

After changing her clothes, she went behind the bar and picked the restaurant's menu and notes. She saw Sango already resumed her task in cleaning the last table. From her spot she could hear the stove hissing, that meant Miroku was actually doing his task at the moment.

The door bell rang, indicating that someone is entering the restaurant. Kagome put on her smile and made her way to the door, expecting a customer. Who she saw, though, turned her smile into a frown. "Why are you late?" she asked the man.

"Keh, none of your business, wench!" he replied rudely then entered the changing room.

"Figures," she muttered. The nerve of that man! She knew Inuyasha disliked her, mind you, the feelings was mutual. But she was willing to repair their relationship. Who wanted to work with someone you hate, anyways?

"Myoga wanted to talk to him," Sango filled in the blanks, "I believe Inuyasha went to the hospital this afternoon."

Kagome resisted a wince, "What happened?" she felt guilty for injuring the old-man.

"Don't you read the paper, wench?" a voice behind her said. "Stupid old-geezer broke his leg."

Kagome twirled to find the object of her hatred, already in his uniform. He was wearing a red haori and matching billowy pants, white kimono shirt underneath, no shoes. His puppy ears free on top of his head, twitching every now and then. She decided she would save the innocent hanyou ears from vicious yelling; she hated her weakness for cute things. "Was it bad?" asked instead.

The hanyou stared at her, "No, just a crack. But he won't be walking anytime soon."

"Please tell Myoga that I hope he'll get better soon."

"Why don't you just visit him?"

"I wanted too, but I felt uncomfortable if I just visit him like that. He doesn't really know me that well…."

The hanyou raised his eyebrow, clearly showing that he didn't understand her logic, "I could take you if you want," he offered.

She almost fell at that, literally. Take _her_! Weren't he just insulting her five minutes ago! She studied his features as if to find whether he was planning something, but his expression was perfectly masked. "You would do that?" she asked carefully, half expecting him to say that he was only joking.

Inuyasha shrugged, "Sure, why not. Just tell me when, I'll see if I had the time," he trailed as he made his way behind the bar. He threw her his trademark smirk over his shoulder, "You're just making a reason to go on a date with hot guy like me," he teased cockily at the last minute.

Kagome huffed in annoyance. She should have known that he would ruin his good impression at the last minute. He had cornered her into admitting, no, _lying_ that he was hot a couple of days ago, and he wouldn't stop teasing her ever since.

Inuyasha confused her sometimes, one minute he was rude and insensitive, the next he was sweet and concerning; and he still managed to be arrogant and cocky during all that.

She was just about to retort when the restaurant's phone rang. Inuyasha, being the closest, picked it up. "Hello, Sengoku Jidai Restaurant."

There was a silence as the person from the other side of the phone spoke. Kagome started taking orders from the customer that had arrived while she and Inuyasha had their conversation.

"Hey, wench! It's for you!" The hanyou called.

Veins popped onto Kagome's head, and she resisted the urge to throw her sandal to the irritating hanyou. Wooden sandal mark upon his 'extraordinary' face might drove the customers away. Besides, it would be futile. Being a hanyou meant that Inuyasha still had an incredible amount of strength and reflexes. Instead she smiled apologetically to her customers, and let Sango take over her duty.

The young miko went to the phone, purposely getting beyond the counter and stepped on Inuyasha's bare foot with her heavy sandal. She grinned wickedly as the hanyou jumped in one foot, holding his abused body part. He sent her a death glare which she stuck her tongue out in return. "_Moshi-moshi?_" she spoke to the receiver.

"Kagome?" her stomach turned, it was her mother.

"Mama? What is it?" She turned her back to Inuyasha because the hanyou was giving her odd looks.

"I'm sorry honey, but we needed you at home this evening."

She gulped, "Did Buyo eat a sock again?" it was the code set by her mother if she wanted to know that she had a 'job' to do. The code was rather funny, if her stomach was not doing flip-flops.

"Yes," her mom answered.

"I'll come home sooner. Bye, mom," she said and rung off. She turned away, and took another menu and notes, ignoring the hanyou's curious stare. She had gotten used to Inuyasha's extreme smelling ability; he probably could smell that she was upset. She then looked at him in the eye, as if challenging him to ask her what's wrong, hoping he would drop it instead.

But Inuyasha never backed away from a challenge, "What's that about?"

"None of your business," she returned his earlier statement. She did not bother lying; knowing he could smell her lies.

"Keh, fine."

They ignored each other for the rest of her shift. When the short hand of time pointed six, Kagome said her good byes and went home. Inuyasha still sulking behind the bar, but she had better things to worry than him at the moment.

It's time for Israfel to fly.

* * *

Inuyasha watched Kagome's back as she left the restaurant. He knew she was hiding something; her scent bugged him to no end. 

Kagome looked like a normal girl, but despite her happy-go-lucky attitude, recently she had emitted unhappy aura. She hid that well though, if he didn't have his nose he doubted he would even notice.

He brushed that thought aside when Miroku tapped his shoulder. He turned to the houshi and found him grinning from ear to ear. Inuyasha raised his eyebrow in question.

"So, are you going to take a break, or sulk here all night long?" his friend asked.

"Keh," was his only answer. He didn't care if he was being rude, Miroku had gotten used to it.

He turned to the coffee maker. He needed some caffeine, so he retrieved a bag of coffee from the upper shelf.

The phone rang again; Miroku went to pick it up. "Moshi-moshi, Sengoku Jidai Restaurant."

Inuyasha had to snort at that. The first time Miroku answered a phone, he added 'we give 70 discount for pretty girls who was willing to bear my child.' Sango was so furious she knocked him out for at least two hours. Ever since then she had made it clear that he could only answer the phone with a greeting and the restaurant's name, or suffered the consequences.

"Just wait a sec," Miroku turned to him, "For you, Inuyasha."

He left his coffee and received the phone, "Speak."

"Commander Takahashi, a letter had just arrived for Commander Moriyama. And because he said to direct his every letter to you from now on…." said a man on the other side of the phone line.

Inuyasha cursed Myoga inside his head for the hundredth time since that afternoon. He cut the other man's speech, "Don't call me commander, just get to the point," he ordered.

"Do you want me to read it or do you want me to fax it for you?"

"Just tell me what the letter is about!" he barked. What kind of subordinates work for the damn old-man! He knew right then that he was doomed to have a migraine every evening. That reminded him, he still needed that caffeine.

"Yes, sir! It's from Israfel, sir!"

"What's her next target?" he sighed in boredom, might as well dictate the boy word by word. Had he ever heard of initiative!

"It was a sculpture named 'The Pride of China'. Mrs. Leone Cryheart owns the artifact."

"The widow in The Cryheart Mansion?"

"Yes, sir!"

He did some quick thinking before ordered, "I want you to go to the mansion right now, bring three units with you. Send someone to fax me the mansion's map."

"Right away, sir!"

He ended the phone call. When he turned to Miroku, his friend was giving him curious looks. "Myoga send you to chase the thief?"

Inuyasha grunted in reply. "Damn old-man, what's so difficult in catching some thief anyway?"

Miroku shrugged, "Beats me, but I heard that this 'Israfel' is pretty good. Some people said that she could disappear, leaving no trace behind her."

Inuyasha went back waiting for his coffee, "No humans or youkais could disappear, and the only way to 'leave no trace' is to fly. Winged youkais could do that, but they had became extinct two hundred years ago."

Miroku nodded, "You're right. Knowing your grandfather-in-law, he cowered at the last minute and sent some of his subordinates to do the chase."

"Exactly," Inuyasha retrieved three mugs from the lower shelf, and continued, "I'll catch this damn thief tonight; she hadn't known who Myoga's substitute is yet. It'll be a nice surprise."

The conversation ended when the fax machine gave a shriek.

* * *

From her position on the roof top, she climbed her ways down to on of the Mansion's higher window sill. The window was large, thus giving her free access to observe the building's interior. 

She saw police every where, every possible exits was guarded. She frowned at the sudden change, usually Myoga failed to discover one or two of the exit-route, thus making her run rather easy. Whoever his substitute is, he/she was good. However, Kaede did teach her one thing; if you couldn't find a way in or a way out; you make one yourself, though she didn't like the idea of using her magic. The pain from her last training was still fresh in her mind. Yes, some of her family's magic was quite painful for the caster.

First thing first, she jumped back to the roof. Her mother informed her that the widow would mostly have the artifact. She said that _'The Pride of China' _would make its owner unbelievably possessive, and think everyone as an enemy. She only had to find where the poor woman was. Randomly, she looked inside one of the room that faced east. Nope, not here.

The same with the next window, there wasn't any sign of the 'Pride of China'. In the next room, though, she heard voices. The upper window was opened, so she could hear the words.

"I absolutely refuse to have this kid protects my belongings! I want him out right now! I don't trust anyone! Out! OUT!"

"Look, I don't give a damn what you thought of me. I could not protect your life if you kept hugging the thing!"

Kagome felt her throat tightened. The second voice sounded familiar, _extremely_ familiar. She turned her body upside down and spied into the room. There she saw the widow, hugging 'The Pride of China', wailing and shouting, sending everyone a warring glare. She turned her attention to the other, and her hand slipped.

The next thing she registered was pain, but it was enough to pull her out of her shock. _'Sht'_, she cursed mentally.

She had fallen down to the room's veranda. Everybody in the room, including her, froze. That's when she met his gaze. His amber eyes pierced her. Though it was filled with shock, it still managed to look as intimidating as ever. She resisted a shudder.

Right then she decided that it's time to take some drastic actions.

In a matter of seconds, she rushed to through the window, unlocking it with lighting speed, then jumped, doing flips, and then landed with her hands on top of the widow's head.

Before anyone recovered fully from her sudden actions, she had taken the 'Pride of China' between her ankles, and swung the artifact flying to the air, at the same time performing an air flip, and back to her previous position on the veranda. But the artifact went _much_ way further; she wasted no time to jump off the veranda, following the falling object. Her mother would kill her if she found out that she had thrown the sculpture out of the window.

Well it was not her fault that INUYASHA was there!

"Fck!" he cursed loudly and she didn't blame him.

The good thing from a three stories building is, that if you throw something out of the window, it took time before it hits the earth, especially if you threw them up the air first, thus giving it extra few heights.

She was well aware that Inuyasha had followed her jumping down the veranda, being heavier, however; he rushed to the earth faster than she was. Kagome was not willing to give the artifact to him. She turned her body, now facing him. Their eyes met each other for a brief second before she curled her legs to her body… then kicked him on the face.

The action gave her the needed momentum to reach the sculpture, just a few seconds before she made contact with the earth. She barely managed to curl her body again to roll on the ground, preventing direct damage to her head. Her whole body hurt like hell, her mind rushed, and her heart was thundering against her ribcage. After the impact, she straightened quickly, and jumped again to the trees.

On her way, she put a quick sealing spell on the artifact. She could purify it later. She couldn't afford to do it anyway, since the act required a good amount of concentration. Nobody could have focus if you had a raging hanyou tailing behind you.

"Damn thief! You're not getting away!" she heard him snarled behind her, and risked glancing over her shoulder at the middle of her jump.

Not good, Inuyasha was a hanyou, at this rate he would catch up with her soon. He was hot on her trails, jumping from trees to trees, and did not even break a sweat, he just looked pssed off.

She knew what she had to do; Kaede didn't train her for nothing. She put one of her hand to her chest, because the other hand was busy holding the sculpture. She did not dare to close her eyes, but she began praying anyway. Despite the racing wind in her ears, almost could hear Kaede's last lecture.

_"We're thieves, Kagome; and there're always someone chasing us, either human or youkai. But we're not just any thieves. No matter how good and how strong the humans or youkais were, we are better…." _

Kagome could felt the magic tingling from within her, rushing, and gathering to the middle of her back. It was ready to be released whenever she was ready. Her back started to grow hot and itches.

They had reached the end of the small forest, and stumbled upon a clearing. At the last tree, she braced herself and jumped high, turning middle way and saw Inuyasha had followed her example. Their eyes met again, and everything seemed to go into slow motions. She saw confusion in his face; he might be wondering why she didn't have any scent.

She smiled secretly behind the cloth covering her face. _'Well Inuyasha, I guess this means war,'_ she thought bitterly.

She finally closed her eyes, and released the magic stored in her back. She grinded her teeth at the expected pain, and the back of her clothes was torn.

The end of Kaede's sentence reached her ear;

_"We're better, Kagome… because we have the ability to fly." _

* * *

Inuyasha was still frozen in shock after his landing on the grassy clearings; the object of his chase had already gone from sights. 

"_Wings…"_ his mind reeled, making him dizzy, _"She fcking had wings! How in the seven hells has she grown wings!" _

He felt lost, cheated, and worse, he felt betrayed. He didn't quite understand the last part, but those were his feelings at that moment.

He didn't know how long he had stood there, watching the sky. He was not surprised when the police units began to pour out the small forest, finally catching up with him.

One of the policemen called from behind, "Commander Takahashi!"

He turned to him and snarled, "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me 'commander'!"

"Y-yes, sir!" the policemen stammered.

"Keh," he turned away again and continued glaring to night sky, as if urging it to spit out someone; preferably a female thief who wore deep indigo ninja-like clothes, had no scents, and had wings. _Damn wings_.

"Israfel?" the policemen asked when the rest of the clearing were filled with other units.

"She flew away," he replied, still not turning.

The policemen didn't seemed to caught the deeper meaning of his answer and simply registered that Inuyasha had lost her somewhere in the forest. Inuyasha mad no actions to correct his mistakes. Who would believe that someone could actually fly, anyway? Let them see the flying btch themselves.

"What did Mrs. Cryheart say?" Inuyasha asked.

"She said that she had no memories for the past three days, ever since she received 'The Pride of China' from a man."

The hanyou finally turned to his subordinate, "Did you ask any description of this man?"

"She said he was very tall, about two meters, nicely built, long wavy black hair, and was well mannered."

Inuyasha frowned, this man sounded harmless. "Fine, did she press any charges against us?"

"No, she said she didn't even remember having it, so she let it go. Um… sir?"

"What?"

"She sounded very different from the woman earlier."

The hanyou raised his eyebrow, "Define 'different'."

"Um… well, she was less uh… noisy, and seemed calm and kind. She didn't think of anyone as her enemy like before. Some people were confused by her sudden change of personality."

His eyebrow drew together as he think. None of this rang the bell. Maybe he should go through his grandfather-in-law's files. He turned to his subordinate, "You, what's your name?"

"H-Hojo. Akitoki Hojo."

"Alright Hobo; I needed you to check every subjects that had lost their belongings to Israfel from the last three weeks, could you do that for me?"

"Yes, sir! Do you need anything specific in the report, sir?"

"Yes, I need you to find out from who they got the artifact, how their attitude was before and after their possessions was stolen. Have the report ready by tomorrow evening, or I'll make sure you had a punishment," said Inuyasha.

Hojo nodded hastily, and bolted out of sight. Probably because he had a report due in short time.

Inuyasha returned his gaze to the sky, though he was not glaring at it anymore. Instead, he held a frown. This Israfel was definitely not an ordinary thief, and her targets were not just normal valuable artifacts. He had feelings that she was involved in something big, he just didn't know what …yet; but he was determined to find what it was.

He sighed and rubbed the area between his eyes; now he got that migraine. He headed back to the mansion, where he parked his car. Screw Israfel, he needed to sleep.

**TBC**

* * *

** Today's Artifact **

Now THIS is something I can be proud of at least to me. I found "Pride of China" when I'm browsing about The Language of The Flowers, so it was supposed to be some kind of flower… or a plant. But I twisted it into a sculpture sweat dropped … me and my crazy imagination… I could never live it down if my lil brother knew laugh nervously. No, I haven't seen the flower. If any of you have, I'm more than happy if you could tell me, or better, send me the photo! Anyway, "Pride of China" represents dissension, quarrel, or war. Hah! Thank you, Thesaurus!

* * *

**Translations **

Yukata : a summer kimono

Houshi : monk

Hentai : pervert

-sama : used to registered someone with higher status, usually a royalty or a priest.

-chan : added after a name to register someone younger, close, or dear to you.

Cosplay: wearing unusual outfits usually came out of a story or animes.

Haori : Japanese robe/coat

Hanyou : half-demon

Youkai : Demon.

Moshi-moshi : Japanese greetings, used when picking up a phone call.

* * *

** Ramblings **

Hiya! I had MAJOR difficulties when deciding whether I should make the whole gang hi-schoolers or I made them work together somewhere. I still had this feeling in the pit of my stomach like I didn't decide the right thing. But probably that's because I don't have one of those hi-school fics in my works. Well, I guess there're always next time, right? I just hope I can write this story right, after all, I'm still learning. Hehe.

* * *

Next Chapter's artifact is **"The Goat's Rue"** and to be honest that's all I know about it. Hahaha 

Hope you enjoy! **REVIEW! **


	4. Goat's Rue

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

AN: Why do I always have difficulties in starting a chapter? I never had this problem before! Anyway, here goes chapter three….

* * *

**Angel Israfel   
**

**Chapter 3 **

**"The Goat's Rue" **

* * *

_Dear Commander Takahashi, _

_Tonight, Angel would decend to take the beloved lost child from the Eden. _

_Sincerely, _

**_ISRAFEL _**

* * *

The weather was extremely hot when Inuyasha entered _The Sengoku Jidai_ that afternoon; he practically had to resist his tongue lolling out like a common dog. For once, his silvery white hair was tied in a high ponytail. He usually was too lazy to take care of his hair except to wash them every other day, putting them into that ponytail had been a struggle; until someone offered a help.

He brushed the sweat that appeared on his forehead, but the act was useless since they appeared again soon after. "Where's the damn air-conditioning! I thought we've just bought a new one last summer!"

Sango looked up to him, gave him an odd look, before burst into a fit of laughter.

"What are you laughing at!" the hanyou barked.

Sango took her time to wipe her tears before stammered her reply, "Go-gomen, Inuyasha! You're just – just-," she laughed uncontrollably again.

Miroku appeared from the kitchen door to see what Sango was laughing for when he stop dead at the sight of his hanyou friend. His eyes widened in horror, "Inuyasha, _who_ exactly _did_ your hair?"

"Rin did, why?" asked Inuyasha in return. Rin was a six year old child his half brother had adopted, though he still wondered why that bastard brother of his would do such thing.

"Did you even bothered to check on your reflection before you left?" asked the houshi amusedly, during all this Sango was still laughing hysterically.

"No time, I need to stop by Myoga's office before I came," Inuyasha turned to Sango, "What!" he demanded. The heat was getting into him; maybe it had turned Sango crazy.

Before Sango could answer, the doorbell rang. The glass door slid open to reveal a very sweaty Kagome. "It's soo hot!" she moaned, fanning herself with her own hand. Her hair was up in a ponytail too. "Sango, please don't tell me that the air-con…." She fell silent as she saw something on the hanyou's hair. Her eyes widened, "I-Inuyasha…."

The hanyou turned, "What!" he asked gruffly.

Kagome was too shocked to take offence from his rude behavior, "Where did you get that HUGE pink ribbon?"

Inuyasha paled. Without another word he stormed to the changing room, slamming the door hard after him.

Kagome blinked several times, staring at the closed wooden door.

Sango's renewed laughter was the one who broke her trance. Kagome went to her best friend and patted the hyper girl's back, "Sango! Come on, stop laughing!"

Sango shook her head, her face turned almost purple from preventing another hysterical laugh. "I'm sorry!" she gasped. She drew a deep breath before she started talking, though she was still grinning when she managed to speak again. "How's your ankle? Your grandpa said it was pretty bad,"

Kagome faked a smile, "I'm okay now," she stopped at that. The real reason she had stayed at home for the last three days was because she was too weak to get out of bed. That's what you get for using magic you hadn't quite mastered yet. Even at the moment her back still hurts. _Darn_ wings.

Inuyasha walked out of the changing room, hair down, wearing his uniform without its outer haori. He shot everyone a piercing glare, but Kagome thought he looked like a sulking child. Without words, he made his way behind the bar, and started the coffee maker.

Kagome struggled not to stare at him. She didn't know why an upset Inuyasha always manage to unnerve her. She shook her head to throw the thoughts away, but Inuyasha's tense and sulking aura drew her eyes like magnet.

Apparently, since everyone was distracted, Miroku decided it was time to do his afternoon ritual;

"HENTAI!" Sango suddenly screamed.

The houshi didn't have the time to run and was smacked flat on the face. Fortunately, he recovered quickly enough from the impact to duck Sango's next attack and retreated to the kitchen before the girl had the chance to reach a mop. Sango was fuming you could practically see smoke coming out of her ears.

Kagome smiled and shook her head hopelessly. She went to the changing room and absently checked her reflection on the small mirror behind the door as she put on her uniform. A thought cross her mind suddenly. She pulled the leather band that tied up her hair, retrieving a hair-brush from inside her back pack, and exited the room.

She walked behind the bar where one particular hanyou was still sulking. She poked the brush to his waist.

Unexpectedly, he squirmed. Kagome found it quite amusing.

He glared at her, "What do you want?"

She held out the brush and the leather band to him.

His gaze turned confused before he masked with his usual gruffness, "I don't need it," he turned his face away.

Kagome gave him an amused smile. "Rubbish, I can practically see your tongue lolling out. My hair was not as long as yours, I could live with the heat," she retorted.

He seemed to judge her for a while. She didn't blame him though; it's not like that they have the most harmonic relationship in the world. "Fine, you do it," he replied in a challenging tone.

Kagome blinked once, twice. Not just she thought Inuyasha would need more _encouragement_… did he just asked her to do his hair? The heat must be really killing him….

The miko pulled a chair closer, "Sit, I can't reach your head if you're standing."

He compiled obediently, Kagome had to resist a giggle for his eagerness. Actually, she was a bit nervous about seeing Inuyasha again. She hadn't really met him since their last encounter at The Cryheart Mansion, though Inuyasha didn't know that she was _Israfel_. Somehow she felt like she was betraying him.

Her hand instantly became busy in his hair. She ran the brush from the base of his neck, pulling and arranging. She envy how his silvery mane shone beautifully, and was surprised when she found that they were not as silky as she had imagined, but smooth enough for a male. After all, Inuyasha seemed to be the type who preferred buying a three-in-one shampoo and be done with it; at least they were clean. She left his two front locks, and finally tied the others up with her leather bands. "Done," she whispered more to her self.

He grunted softly in reply, but Kagome knew that for Inuyasha; it was as good as thanks. She studied the high ponytail, "Is it too tight? I did it so it could hold for the rest of the day. Is that okay?" she asked. She had wanted to braid them, but she was short of hair bands.

"Its fine," he replied as he pulled something out of his pocket and gave it to her.

It was the pink ribbon. Kagome looked up to him in question.

"For your hair, the air-conditioning broke down."

Somehow, her heart felt warmer. She gave him a bright smile, "Thank you."

He quickly turned his back to her, "Feh!"

When he could no longer see her face, her smile faded. She felt guilty. Great, just when their relationship was starting to get better, she had to betray him. Her stomach churned.

* * *

"Here it is, Mr.Takahashi! _'The Goat's Rue'_" informed the head of The Museum, Mr. Satou, to Inuyasha that evening, stopping at one of the paintings inside The Eden. Their town's museum has five buildings; Eden was one of them which displayed paintings and sculptures of animals.

Inuyasha cast a brief glance to the painting's title. He frowned. It was the right painting, but when he looked at it, he personally thought it was as ugly as a child's finger painting.

No, the picture was not one of those abstract paintings. It was just a mixture of color between red and white that roughly formed a goat head, regarding the title; otherwise he would think it as a horse head with some kind of horn. Keh.

"Commander Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha slapped a hand to his head in that 'not again' gesture. He decided to give up telling Hojo to drop his _temporary_ title; it seemed that the boy was incapable to be on the first name basis with anyone. Not that _he_ want to get friendly with _him_. "Yes?" he turned.

The boy appeared oblivious to his boss' gruffness as he thrust a ringed bundle of paper, smiling proudly at the same time. "Your repot, sir!"

Inuyasha grunted his thanks after snatching the papers off the boy's grip. Not even bothering to read it, he continued, "Did you found anything about the black haired man?"

Hojo looked innocently confused, "Um… what man, sir?"

The hanyou slapped his head again, "The black wavy haired, almost two meters, and well-mannered man the Cryheart widow had talked about!"

Hojo clapped his hand together, "Ah! _That_ man! The one who gave Mrs. Cryheart '_The Pride of China'_?"

Inuyasha rubbed the area between his eyes, "Yes, did you found anything about him?"

"Not yet, sir! I was working on that repot and didn't have the time."

The hanyou sighed, "Fine, but I want a report about him on my desk by tomorrow morning!"

"Yes, sir!" his subordinate replied cheerfully before turning around to leave.

"Just where do you think you're going?"

"Um… to do the report, sir?"

Inuyasha glared, "Are you mad? Israfel is going to appear again tonight! You're needed to guard this museum!"

"But how am I supposed to have the report by tomorrow morning?"

The hanyou rolled his amber eyes. _'Duh, that's the point on giving you the task!'_ he thought, but didn't voiced it out loud. He simply ignored his subordinate's whine and turned his attention back to Mr. Satou "Yes, this is the right painting, what do you know about it?"

At the mention of Israfel's next target Hojo suddenly forgot about his little time crisis, and turned attentively to Mr. Satou. _'Great'_, Inuyasha thought, _'please don't tell me he was one of her fans!' _

The middle aged man brightened, as every head of a museum would have when asked about the artifacts they were in charge of. "Oh, _'The Goat's Rue'_ was one of the oldest paintings received by this museum! It's pretty odd, actually, it never attracts people before, until three days ago. Now I can see why."

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows, "What? Did this painting get uglier or something?" He was not embarrassed to admit that he never really understood artistic things, most of all paintings, not that he didn't appreciate them, he only failed to catch most of their beauty. It was just odd that there are people who fought for those kind of pictures.

Mr. Satou shot him a disapproving look, "Can't you feel it? This painting felt empty before, now it feels like it contained some kind of power!"

Inuyasha almost snort, _almost,_ but he didn't think that offending Mr. Satou more than he already had would be a good idea. Besides, he needed the old man's cooperation.

He studied the painting again. What was that old man talking about? What _power_? There was nothing strange about the painting (apart from being awfully ugly). Why did Israfel want it? She should at least _know_ how to esteem artifacts, right? Was the painting _that_ beautiful?

Frowning, he reached and touched the canvas.

Suddenly he saw it. It's faint and just flared around the picture and disappeared as if it never came. He felt the air around him pulsed. Abruptly, he snatched his hand away and staggered back. A hand clamped over his nose, eye wide. The painting had just emitted _youki_ and a remarkably nasty scent.

"What's wrong sir?" Hojo asked.

Inuyasha turned to the boy, then to Mr. Satou. Both of them didn't appear like they had seen whatever he had seen. Normal humans could not sense that kind of thing except if it was very powerful. He had to thank his demon heritage for that.

His inside jolted as the youki flared again, this time stronger. The two humans facing him gasped.

"Oh my god…" Mr. Satou breathed eyes wide in terror, his eyes focus on something _behind_ him. But there was nothing behind him besides the painting, right?

Hojo had taken a few steps back with the same terrified expression. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly before he finally found his vocal chords, "Ah… ah… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Inuyasha knew it was a bad idea to look back, he _knew_, but he turned around anyway.

The goat head had somehow gotten out of the painting, eyes flashed red in menace.

* * *

Kagome cursed mentally over and over again as she saw the goat inside the painting materialized and jumped out, leaving the canvas empty. During all this, she was safely perched on one of the large higher windows facing _'The Goat's Rue'_.

She didn't understand why her grandpa insisted to notify the police for her every _'performance'_! Obviously it only made the job needlessly difficult, not to mention the threat it caused to many innocent lives if the artifacts were offensive. Like this _'Goat's Rue'_. She could care less even if it was the tradition of every professional thief! But her _jii-chan_ didn't seem to think so.

She thanked The God that Inuyasha was a hanyou, that way he still stood a chance against the dark creature. He had grabbed the two other men in the room and jumped away from the painting-became-alive. He dropped them in front of the door, but they were too shocked to actually move. The old man had even passed out.

Her mind rushed. What now? She apparently had to go in there and purify the creature! Inuyasha could not destroy it because the creature itself was an illusion magic, his claws would practically run _through_ it without causing any damage. She needed a plan to help them without getting caught.

She watched as Inuyasha discovered that his attacks were useless and now trying to distract the creature away from the two other men. Miraculously, the police units outside hadn't known about the entire riot happening inside The Eden yet.

She watched as Inuyasha dodged, just barely, another attack from the bloody-red goat. The creature was extremely fast. Her heart thundered in her ears. The more she saw what's happening in the room, the more she couldn't think of anything.

Kagome bit her lip, _'Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic – oh sht!' _

The goat suddenly stood still in front of Inuyasha's subordinate and the old man. Inuyasha jumped between them, taking his defense position. The goat's eyes flashed red again and the youki around it flared much more intense.

Fear overwhelmed Kagome's heart as she realized what the illusionary goat was about to do. Not caring that she didn't have any plan yet, she unlocked the window with lightning speed and practically leaped into the room.

Just in time as the creature unleashed an energy ball.

Kagome landed right before Inuyasha, putting out both hands, palms turned up in a protective way. She barely had enough time to project a barrier, defending all of them from the attack.

There was a loud cracking sound as the magical wall contacted with the attack. Smoke emerged from the impact, and the energy ball kept pushing on her shield.

"_You_!" she heard Inuyasha hissed.

Kagome risked losing focus to glance back and shouted at him, "Don't you just stand there! Get out of here!"

"Are you nuts! You can't fight _that_ alone!" the hanyou gripped his katana. Kagome didn't even know what he was doing with a katana, she thought he would had a gun on something more modern.

"Yes, I can! This is _my_ fight! I don't want anyone to get hurt - akh!" she was pushed backwards by the energy's force. "Get out of here!" she repeated.

"What do you mean it was your fight! _It_ attacked _me_! This is _my_ fight!"

Kagome almost rolled her eyes, but she couldn't afford to lose concentration. Even in the time of crisis they still fought for dominance! The energy ball pushed again. Damn, she needed to get them out quick!

"You don't understand! You can't fight that thing! It's an illusion magic!" desperation filled her heart, and that's when she unintentionally put too much magic in her shield.

The barrier and the energy exploded. She screamed as she flew backwards and knocked Inuyasha down the floor with her body.

Hojo fainted, but the hanyou and the miko seemed to have forgotten that he was even there.

Kagome got up before Inuyasha had the chance to recover fully. Her heart thundered, _'Oh my god! He almost caught me!'_ her mind screamed. She jumped away from him, putting a good five meters between them.

The goat seemed to turn its interest on her. Its aura flared again.

_'Oh no!'_ She jumped away as another mass of energy shot to her direction. It hit the wall behind her previous position, leaving a nice crater.

Inuyasha got on his feet again, he saw Israfel dodge another attack with a back flip. Something poked on his inside and before he knew it, he had already shouted, "Hey goat! Pick on somebody your own size!"

The goat turned to him, ignoring Kagome.

Then it hit Kagome that the goat could only pay attention to one of them at a time. Good! Now she could purify it! "Keep its attention to you! I have a plan!"

"Don't tell me what to do, wench!" he yelled back, but he clawed the goat as the creature turned its head to the girl, getting its attention back to him.

Inuyasha was fighting the goat furiously, but it was a loosing battle since he could not hurt the creature, but it could hurt him. He let out a strangled shout as the goat managed to slam its head to his middle, its horn digging deep into his stomach. He hit the wall behind him, making another crater.

He jumped away again, as the goat performed another head-butt. Blood leaked out damping his shirt even as he pressed one hand to the wounds.

Kagome was frantic, "Inuyasha!"

"Just focus on whatever plan you're planning!"

Kagome wanted to help him. She really wanted to, but she knew she was no good in short range battle. She shook her head to clear her mind, and drew a deep breath, hoping it will calm her racing heart.

From her distance, she turned to face the empty canvas the goat had left. Raising a hand, she gently swung it downwards. Her other hand made a gesture of gripping something in arm length parallel her eyes. An energy bow appeared in her gripping hand. Her free hand made a motion of pinching something from the bow and drew it to her ear. An energy arrow appeared and she was ready to shoot.

When the hanyou and the goat moved into her range, she shouted, "Get out of the way, Inuyasha!"

The hanyou leaped away and she released her arrow of soul.

The arrow went through the goat's head and pinned it to its empty canvas. There was a blast of pink light.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in the brightness; he was pushed backwards when the air around the painting gave another pulse. He noted that _this_ pulse was not full of nasty youki, but a purifying magic.

When the light died down, he saw Israfel had already taken the painting and was jumping towards the opened widow.

"Wait!"

She swore she didn't know why she stopped right then, just about to leap out of the building from the rim of the high window, back facing him. She swore she didn't know how she _knew_ that he was not going stood up and tried to catch her.

Perhaps because he was on his knee, his wound still bleeding heavily, or perhaps because his voice had that desperate edge that made it sounded _almost_ like he was pleading.

But she stopped nonetheless.

"What… what was that _thing_?" he asked, his voice was intense with mixed emotions.

She turned to him, her body ready for any kind of suspicious movement. If he made _one_ move to catch her, she'll run immediately.

He did nothing but drop down and sit on the floor, his amber eyes staring to her. Kagome thanked The God again that they were too far away from each other; she didn't want him to see her closely. Not when he almost caught her today.

"That was one of the enchanted artifacts…" she answered simply. Her voice surprised her, it somehow had gotten a mature tone that was calm and give an impression that she would not prolonged her answer.

"Enchanted? You mean someone put a magic on them?" Under different circumstances he had might snorted and out rightly said that she had to be joking. But he experienced a head-butt from the goat first hand, so he had no other choice to believe whatever she was telling him. It's not like he had any ideas of what the thing was any way.

"A curse, yes," she answered, not really knowing why she was answering at all. _'But,'_ she reasoned, _'At least I owed him an explanation of what had beaten him to bloody plump...,'_ and she felt kind of guilty for it.

"So these artifacts are supposed to attack people?" he asked again.

"Some. They are under many different types of magic. Some are offensive, others are changing personalities, or brain-washing… they are dangerous in many kinds of ways."

Inuyasha run a hand through his hair. He knew he should have leaped up and chased her right now. But no, too many questions need to be answered. He would let her go tonight; after all, she had saved his life and the two other men earlier.

"That attack you used… those bright weapons, what are those?" he asked again.

"It was a purifying arrow, the only thing so far that can break its curse. And an energy bow, one of our essential magic."

"Your wings, too?"

"Yes," not really, her wings were _much_ more advance magic than conjuring an energy bow. '_Which I haven't quite mastered yet_,' she reprimanded herself.

He was silent of a moment like he was trying to engrave the information in his mind.

"Why are you stealing things? Are you selling them to the black market or something?" he asked again. He didn't like those two ideas at all, he didn't know why, he just didn't.

Surprisingly, she chuckled, "No, those things are in safe hands. I'm not selling them to anyone. I did what I did to that goat just now, I purified them."

"Why didn't you returned them?" he frowned in confusion.

She shook her head; he would miss that gesture if he did not have his demon sights. "I will, just not so soon. They were too weak, they might get enchanted again."

Suddenly, his brain clicked, "You stole those things because they were enchanted… so who put the spell?"

"You've heard of him, he gave Mrs. Cryheart _'The Pride of China',_" Kagome couldn't believe she was sharing all this information with him. This was madness!

"So he's your enemy? You're fighting this guy? Why didn't you just tell the police!"

Kagome decided that enough was enough. She smiled ruefully though it remained hidden behind her scrap of cloth, "You asked to much questions, _commander_."

"Answer me!" he growled.

"We've been fighting them for ages, this is our duty," but then, information kept leaking out from her mouth… she just couldn't strain herself from practically throwing hints at him… she just didn't understand why, talk about being professional. Her family would not be happy if they knew about this.

"We? Are you in some kind of organization? Who is this guy? Who are _them_?"

"You don't want to get involved in this, commander. But I assure you; I work alone. Just do your job and capture me, though I doubt you would," she smiled again secretly. "Which reminded me; why aren't you chasing me?" she added.

"Do you want me to?" he glared at the girl. She was teasing him! He was kindly letting her go, and she was _teasing_ him! The nerve of that girl!

She turned her back to him, "Good bye, commander." With that she jumped down the window, disappearing from his sight behind the wall.

That's when the police units finally busted into the room; they froze in shock at the two unconscious people, their bloody commander, and the two craters on the wall.

* * *

Inuyasha stared at the ceiling of his bed room. His wounds was bandaged and healing, they'll probably be gone in an hour or so. He looked at his digital alarm clock on his side table.

04.17 AM

Stupid Israfel and her stupid mystery! He swore she left him hanging just to torture him! She probably knew he would stay up all night thinking of his answered and unanswered questions. Stupid btch!

Not that he needed much sleep, he was a hanyou after all. Hanyous and youkais didn't need much sleep to regain their strength; they could stay awake for three days straight without as much as a headache.

She said that the reason she stole all those things was because they were enchanted, he guessed by evil magic. She said that she had been doing it for ages, no, she said _they_ had been doing it for ages, probably she was in some kind of organization, but she said she work alone.

And her power! It was magic, he was sure, but he didn't know what type of magic she used. Her purification arrow was obviously miko powers, but there was no way in hell a miko could conjure an energy arrow, complete with the bows. They were like a mixed type of magic he had never heard of. But miko powers dominated her magic, was she some kind of a shrine maiden?

He realized that he was getting no where so he saved that train of thought and switch to the other.

Who is this man that cast a spell on things? What's his motive? Or motives? Why is Israfel chasing him? He had suspected that Israfel was not just a common thief; no ordinary thief would have _that_ kind of power, wings and all. He had suspected that she was involved in something _big_. But he didn't know that it was SO big and was as messy as a rat's nest. He doubt he even know the half of it.

He mused again about things, and tried to start doing the puzzles. But there was a large gap of missing pieces, making it impossible to even _guess_ what the puzzle was about. He just needed more information.

"Arrrgh!" He ruffled his hair in frustration.

He glanced again to his digital clock.

05.23 AM

He sighed. No point on going to sleep now. Absently, he pressed on his wounds to see if they had healed completely. His muscle was still a bit tender, but it was nothing to his abnormal pain tolerance.

He got out the bed and went to have a nice warm shower.

** TBC **

* * *

** Today's Artifact **

Sweat dropped I don't really like the 'goat' part, but it's the only name I could find that meant 'reason'. Same as before, "Goat's Rue" was supposed to be a flower, but you know me, I'm not satisfied if I don't change it into something else. He he! I choose a painting because I couldn't think of anything else, painting was my last resort. And I didn't really plan the whole painting-become-real thing, because I told you I still have difficulties in some details. I decided to 'materialized' the goat just as I'm writing it, actually it took me a whole 15 minutes to decided what am I going to do with the ugly painting. I think it's pretty creative, I can't remember if I had read it somewhere else though, so I can safely claimed that I got the idea myself.

* * *

**Translations **

Haori : Kimono-ish outer robe/coat

Houshi : Buddhist monk

Miko : Shinto priestess

Hentai : pervert

Hanyou : half-demon

Youkai : Demon.

* * *

** Ramblings **

18 freakin' pages! I just knew once I started it would be difficult to stop! Thank God I started this early or I'll probably sleep around two in the morning, again! Last night I was busy reading a Harry Potter fanfiction, hehehe.

Anyway, I hope it's not boring. I really tried to make the story as light as possible, but it seemed like it was not working. I really had to learn how to keep my writings interesting and not boring you in the middle. You do realize I add the Inuyasha-in-his-bed-room scene just to make you curious right:dodged rotten fruit that was thrown by one of the readers: Just kidding, I add that part because I feel like I had to write it. I'm not sure why.

* * *

Next chapter's artifact is… :drum rolled: **The Oathkeeper! **And yes, obviously it came from Kingdom Hearts, please don't forget to thank Square-Enix and Disney. In this fic it is not a key blade, I'm just borrowing the name, hehehe, and it has a stronger possessing magic! I wonder who would wield the sword…. I haven't really decided yet… maybe Hojo?

**REVIEW! **


	5. Oathkeeper

Disclaimer: I _still_ don't own Inuyasha. I really wanted him though, so I can personally clipped his adorable ears with a nail clipper if he started to act like a jerk and broke Kagome's heart again! (Oh, and the nail-clipper idea belongs to Rozefire aka Rosefire, geez, I don't own anything do I?)

A/N: Woa… I reached chapter four. I have already written 70 pages in English! My teacher would be proud! (Not that I'll ever show her my writings! p) Now, on with the fic!

* * *

**Angel Israfel **

**Chapter 4 **

**"The Oathkeeper" **

* * *

_Dear Commander Takahashi, _

_The Sun,_

_Walking its road of twilight,_

_As the tired squire,_

_greeted the Hevn,_

_to kidnap the keeper of oaths,_

_And kept him under her wings.  
_

_Sincerely, _

**_ISRAFEL _**

* * *

"Honestly, Kagome! He was all cranky and moody today! I mean – I know he had that permanent PMS and all – but today he was completely unbearable!" Sango screamed over the phone on Monday evening. 

Kagome laugh awkwardly, she didn't really know how to respond anyway. "I'm sorry you have a horrible day Sango. But I would have expected Inuyasha to bug Miroku, not you!"

"Exactly! That lecher turned all cowardly and hides in the kitchen all day! If that hanyou behaved this way every time he failed to catch Israfel, I swear I'm going to- I'm going to- to-," Sango ended her sentence with a violent growl.

Kagome laughed nervously again. So Inuyasha was extremely 'upset' that she had left him hanging with questions that she had ignored … not that she had given him the time to ask them all.

"I seriously thought to call you in! Oh Kagome, why do you have Monday for you day off!"

"Umm Sango, you forgot that Thursday is also my day off," said Kagome, glad for the chance to change the subject.

"No! Kagome, don't you dare leave me alone surrounded with those loony testosterones! I'll go to the nut-house if I had another day like this!"

"_Gomen ne_, Sango, but I need time to catch up with my school works; I'm already late for submitting my mid-term project!"

"Couldn't you do them on the evenings?"

_Oh, no. Not with all the tasks she had to do for the sake of her family's traditions! _She wanted to scream out loud.

"Oh please be in this Thursday Kagome! Just this week! I'll give you a pay-rise!" said Sango in a pleading tone.

"Oh alright…," Kagome replied reluctantly.

"Really! Is that a promise?"

Kagome was very tempted to say no, "Yes, if that's what you want," she answered.

"Thanks, Kagome! You're the best!"

"You better give me that pay-rise!"

"No problem!" her friend answered cheerfully.

Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Oh, have you heard about the new item in the museum?" asked Sango.

Kagome who had buried herself in her school work all weekend blinked at that. "That's so unlike you! I thought you're not interested in artistic things?"

Her friend gave a flustered reply, "Yeah… that's true. But I'm interested in ancient weapons! They said it was a very beautiful sword, white as snow, the handle formed wings! I really wanted to see it!"

Kagome blinked again. "A sword?"

"Yes! It has a name too, you know… just like _Hiraikotsu_! It was a beautiful name, but it slipped me… hold on, it's the Oas… Orth…."

Kagome frowned, "Sango, are you talking about The Oathkeeper?"

"That's it! How'd you know that? Have seen it before?"

"Uhm… not really, just some pictures," she replied. Kaede had shown her those photographs. Her grandmother always made sure she could recognize her next target; either gave her pictures or just descriptions. Usually that was followed by some of the artifact's history; almost all of her targets had a story of its own.

Sango continued blabbering on how she really wanted to see the sword. "Will you come with me to the museum tomorrow, Kag?"

_'Nope, I have to steal it tomorrow. Come on, Kagome! Think of something!' _"Sango, the restaurant's open tomorrow, remember?"

"Exactly!" her friend answered with a bit too much happiness.

Kagome sweat dropped. Guess Sango still want paybacks for her stress today… "Uhm… won't I be in trouble? Inuyasha won't tolerate that…"

"Don't worry, I'll think of something!"

Kagome laugh again nervously. _'Just say no, Kagome, it's not that hard!'_ her mind screamed.

"C'mon Kagome, please! Pretty please, with cherries on the top!" that was so un-Sango-like. Perhaps Inuyasha had bugged her to insanity, and now Sango was an evil woman seeking for revenge.

It was always a loosing battle when someone used that tone to her, "… okay. I'll go…." Kagome sighed. Kaede wasn't going to like this, neither did Inuyasha. Hell, she didn't like this either!

"Perfect!" Sango replied, "Oops, I have to pick up Kohaku now! I better get going…."

"Soccer practice?"

"Yeah…. Bye, Kagome, see you tomorrow!"

"Bye," Kagome answered then hung up.

She went to her bedroom and sat down her bed with a huff. Sango would most likely pick her right after school, they'll probably stay in the museum for two hours max, and then it'll be around sunset. That leaves her exactly an hour to go home and go back to the museum as Israfel (her notify said _'the sun was walking its road of twilight' _Kaede love poetic phrases.), and that's not possible at least you're superman. _Woman_, she corrected absently. And she's no superwoman; she's just a good ol' nineteen year girl who occasionally wears ninja clothes to steal things.

She sighed, "What have I gotten myself into?"

* * *

**_The Hevn_** (one of the five building in the Pentagon Museum) was extremely crowded by the time Sango and Kagome arrived on Tuesday afternoon. It seemed that the news of how beautiful the sword is had spread quickly. The two girls practically had to fight their way through the circle of visitors just to see it clearly. 

As Kagome looked at the sword, her jaw dropped. Even if Kaede had shown her photographs, there must be something wrong with them. She had never seen a sword as meresmerizingly beautiful as The Oathkeeper. Deadly; yes, not beautiful! Pretty! Gorgeous! The sword was as white as snow, slim, and thin, she had no idea how the blade could stood still and not swaying. The handle formed a pair of silver wings. The sword appeared almost angelic.

"Oh my, it's beautiful!" a thirty year old career-woman gasped from Kagome's right.

"Look how it illuminates in blue from the spotlight? I bet it was more beautiful if the room's dark," another man said from her left, across Sango.

The pony tailed girl stared in awe, "Kagome, it's so pretty! I mean… katanas are beautiful, too, but this one is… heavenly!" she breathed.

Kagome shook her head, and narrowed her eyes to study the sword. She couldn't feel any youki. Why did Kaede send her to 'retrieve' the sword?

"KEH, my _Tessaiga_ is better!" the familiar voice interrupted her musings.

The two girls turned quickly, "Inuyasha/Miroku!" they gasped simultaneously.

"Inuyasha, what are you doing here?" Kagome hissed as Sango had began her own bickering with Miroku _(rub, rub_ "HENTAI!" _slap)_

The hanyou crossed his arms in front of him, "Do you really expect us to run the restaurant while the two of you are having fun?"

She rubbed her nose bridge, "You left the restaurant just like that?"

"I hang a note that said we had an emergency matters to attend. What are _you_ doing here?"

"Sango wanted to see The Oathkeeper."

"Then let her see! Why do you have to tag along?"

"Inuyasha! We're girls; we felt more comfortable in groups!"

Inuyasha didn't appear to understand her logic, "What? She'll be in a group when she arrived here; you're just making that up!"

"You missed the whole point!" she raised her voice. Why that stupid _insensitive_ jerk!

"What point!" he retorted.

Kagome opened her mouth to yell back when suddenly she felt cold shivers ran down her body. She whirled abruptly and her eyes widened.

Now The Oathkeeper ceased emitting bright blue lights, instead it was dark purple.

Kagome had not realized that the crowds had gone silent until one man spoke with a dazed tone;

"I want that sword." He made a dash through the line that separated the artifact from the spectators, and he wasn't alone. The rest of the crowds gave a raging roar and dove after him like they had just awaken from a trance, each one fighting, putting a claim to have the sword.

Kagome froze.

Somebody knocked her forward. She stumbled and suddenly a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back.

She twisted her head back, "Inuyasha?"

The hanyou did not reply or even looked at her as he fought his way out the chaos, growling and muttering curses under his breath. Somehow the spell didn't affect him. They neared the wall, because it was the farthest place from the fighting crowds.

"What the hell is going on!" he hissed.

Kagome watched the chaos in horror. Of all time the spell on the sword could have been activated, it had to be now. The sword was fine when she saw it earlier; something or _someone_ had triggered the spell. Right in front of her. And she didn't even notice.

"You okay, Kagome?"

Inuyasha's question brought her back. She turned to him, "Y-yeah… I'm okay. Inuyasha, we have to stop them…,"

He stared at her like he was judging something, he was probably confused why she hadn't gone ballistic and fight with the rest of the crowds. His eyes hardened suddenly, "Stay here. If anything happened; call me." he ordered before he leaped to the middle of the crowds again.

She didn't understand what he was doing at first, until he knocked out his first victim and dragged the unconscious man towards the other corner of the room. Inuyasha was knocking them out so they wouldn't fight each other.

Somebody broke away from the crowds, bruised and limping, he seemed to be sober. Kagome recognized him immediately, "Miroku! Miroku, over here!" she shouted, waving her hand to catch his attention.

The Houshi saw her and approached quickly, "Kagome-sama, you're okay! That sword is emitting strange youki! If it wasn't for my trainings I'll be affected too."

"Yes, I guess my miko power helped, too." Kagome suddenly realized they were short of one person. Fears wrapped her heart, "Miroku… where's Sango?"

His eyes turned painful, "I tried to stop her, but she-"

At that moment Inuyasha's yell reach her ears, "Dammit, Sango! Snap out of it!"

Kagome turned her eyes back to the crowd, and saw Inuyasha flew backwards and knocked a group of fighting teenagers, leaving them unconscious. In front of him was Sango, eyes dull like she was hypnotized, in her hand was The Oathkeeper.

Kagome went pale.

Sango's family studied the ancient martial arts of demon extermination. She was good in both short and long range battle; she could fight a hanyou if she had to. Kagome didn't even want to think how an enchanted Sango would fight, especially with a sword that was feeding her power.

The enchanted girl made another dash towards Inuyasha; she seemed to be particularly interested in him. The hanyou dodge her attack by jumping high, but she anticipated his move when she jumped herself and thrust the sword to him. Inuyasha twisted his body to avoid being hit but the sword still managed to graze the side of his stomach. He dropped roughly to the ground.

Miroku broke into a run, "Stay there, Kagome-sama! I'll try to help Inuyasha!"

Kagome gripped her back pack. She was _not_ going to stay there and watch her friends fight each others! She had to purify the sword, and fast! But she couldn't do her magic if she still wanted to hide her identity as Israfel! Inuyasha knew her magic; he had sensed and witnessed it, purifying something in front of him was as good as taking off her mask!

Kagome did the only thing she could think at that moment;

She ran away.

* * *

_snap _

Camera flashlights burst from the highest branch of the oak tree facing the upper window of The Hevn. "Oh.. yeah, this is interesting," the person holding the camera whispered.

He continued to capture the scene inside the building. The hanyou had recovered and now pulling a katana from inside his red jacket. The person raised his eyebrow and zoomed in to see the katana better.

_"What did he expect from a rusty old katana?"_ he thought confusedly.

He snapped the camera again when the pony tailed girl clashed swords with the hanyou, some how the battered sword managed to stay in one piece.

Something caught the corner of his eyes, "Hm?"

He saw a girl in a mini-skirt and long black hair exit the building in a hurry. "Running away, huh? Well, I don't blame you…." He turned his camera to her, "Woa, nice legs!" he whistled as he zoomed his camera again.

But the girl was not running towards the museum gate, instead she went to the nearest bathroom building, slamming the door so hard he could hear it even from his position above the tree.

A strangled yell brought his attention back inside The Hevn. He did not see a woman in black rushing out the bathroom the girl had just entered.

* * *

Kagome needed privacy, so she ran to the nearest bathroom, slamming the door behind her and locked it. She grabbed her back pack and pulled out her costume. In a matter of minutes, Israfel stormed out of the bathroom door, muttering a concealing spell for her scent. 

She ran as fast as she could back inside The Hevn.

She found all the visitors were already unconsious, and the only one who is still fighting was Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku. Inuyasha had bleeding wounds decorated his chest and arms, Miroku was in no better state. Sango had none but that's because both men didn't attack her, they were trying to disable her. The three of them didn't seem to realize Kagome's sudden absence.

Miroku made a move to grab Sango again, but the girl slashed him on the chest.

"Stop trying to **_grab_** her!" she shouted, "You have to knock the sword off her hand!"

She obviously did the wrong thing, because when both sober men turned to her in surprise, Sango wasted no time to thrust her sword through Inuyasha's stomach.

Kagome's mind froze.

Sango turned to Miroku and lashed another sets of attacks.

Kagome clenched her hands, her eyes burned. _'If I don't do something soon, Sango will kill them,'_ her mind screamed.

She raised a hand and conjured her energy bow, the arrow followed soon after. She aimed the tip to Sango, _'I- I have no choice… I'm sorry Sango!' _

She released the arrow.

The line of energy cross the room unstrained and struck the enchanted girl. She screamed hoarsely and fainted; The Oathkeeper slipped off her grip and hit the ground with a clang.

"NO!" the two man shouted aloud. The Houshi quickly brought the unconscious girl to his arms. The hanyou only sat dumbstruck, still bleeding madly.

Kagome approached the now-purified-sword and picked it up. She turned to Miroku, "She would be fine, but you might want to call an ambulance."

The Monk looked reluctant but he complied none the less.

After his exit, a tense silent fell between Inuyasha and her.

"Why did you shot her?" he asked coldly after a while.

She turned her back to him, "I had no choice."

"So you will kill an innocent because you don't have a choice!" he barked back.

Kagome winced at his tone. She could feel his rage, his disbelieve, his… was that betrayal? "She's not dead," she replied in the same cold tone, "That arrow won't kill her."

"I know she's not dead!" he shouted, "I just couldn't believe you shot her! She's not your enemy!"

She whirled around, "Don't you dare use that tone to me," she hissed. "I just want to bring her back, hence the harsh way, but she was about to kill you both. I had to choose between letting her be a murderer, or shoot her. What do you want me to do?"

He said nothing; she did not expect an answer.

She turned away again, "This is my fight, _commander_, I know what I have to do, but that doesn't mean I like it," she said bitterly. She was about to walk away before he stopped her,

"What are you fighting? _Who_ are you fighting? Who are _you_?"

She turned to him again, "My enemy has many names and many forms, I don't know much about _him_ either except _he_ likes to cause chaos like today. As for you last question…." She smiled behind her mask, "You don't really expect me to answer that, do you?"

He stared at her and sniffed. She knew he was trying to catch her scent. She thanked her ancestors again and again for the concealing spell.

"I'm going to catch you," he gritted, "I swear I'm going to catch you and found out who you really are, and you're going to tell me what this is all about. That's a promise, and if you know me, you'll know that I kept my promises."

She shook her head sadly and met his gaze, "Be careful with your promises, commander. Promise is a strong word, and you might not like where it would lead you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

She leaped away to one of the upper window, the window unlocked magically. He was too wounded to actually follow her. "I had said it two days ago, and I'm going to say it again. _You don't want to get involved in this me_ss."

He snorted, "That's for me to decide, don't you think?"

She almost let out a sigh, _almost_, "Don't say I didn't warn you." With that she leaped out of his sights.

* * *

When she landed just outside the window, under the oak tree, suddenly her eyes were blinded by a flash of light. Weird snapping sounds came from up the tree. She looked up. What she saw though, made her inside went cold. 

Someone sat at the highest branch, camera in front of his face. She gasped as his flashlight burst again.

When the light died down, he removed his camera from his face, and smirked. His bright blue eyes pierced her.

"Hello, pretty angel, I hope you don't mind your pretty face on the front page of _Shikon Daily News_ tomorrow!" he winked and before she could recover from her shock, a whirlwind appeared around him and he was gone from sight.

Kagome swear her heart had stopped beating. She stood there, thunderstruck. Her mind froze, her chest felt full that it was painful to draw breath.

It was the ambulance and the police's siren that snapped her out of her trance. She immediately rushed to the girl's bathroom. As she entered, the first thing she found was a mirror, that's when she remembered that she still had her mask on.

Her legs buckled and she fell down the floor. She couldn't stop the choked sob escaping her lips, tears threatening to fell. She was drowned in relief. She felt like she had just escaped a life and death situation. She had been scared. Even part of her still ached with fear despite the fact that her identity was still safe.

It terrified her. No one had managed to take her pictures that close before; photos of Israfel on the newspapers were never more than a dark silhouette from afar. And that person, that man, _that youkai_, had managed to have her in a close up. Though half her face was covered in mask, someone still might recognize her blue-gray eyes.

"It was sunset," she whispered to herself. "The color must be off, I'm still safe…." She gathered her knees and buried her face in them.

Her cell phone suddenly rang. She jumped, startled. Reaching inside her yellow back pack she picked it up. "H-hello?" her voice still shook a little.

"Dammit, wench! WHERE – ARE – YOU!"

She jumped again. Inuyasha!

"DO YOU KNOW I LOOKED ALL OVER FOR YOU! I TOLD YOU TO STA- Hmmphh!" there was a brief sound of struggling, and Miroku was the one who continued the sentence, "Kagome-sama, you had us worried! Where are you?"

"I…," she struggled, what should she say!

"Kagome-sama? Are you alright?" the houshi asked worriedly.

There was some struggling again, this time Inuyasha took over the phone, "Hey, you okay? What happened?" his voice was completely different from before.

"I…," what should she say? Should she tell him she was in the girls' bathroom? Or should she tell him she was at home?

"Kagome, talk to me," his voice had taken a desperate end; it surprised her how her name sounded on his lips without the usual gruffness and annoyance.

"I... I'm in the girls' bathroom," There, she'd said it!

There was silence, and then, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN A GIRLS' BATHROOM!" yup, that's Inuyasha, always easy to annoy.

"I THOUGHT IT WAS SAFER, OKAY!" she shouted back. Let him think she was a coward, anything but suspecting her as Israfel.

There was a long set of cursing words before he finally spoke again, "I'm picking you up right now, and this time _stay_ there!"

She struggled to keep the panic from her voice, "Are you crazy! This is the girls' bathroom! You can't go in!" She pinned her cell phone between her ear and her shoulder while grabbing her normal clothes and started dressing.

"Do you think I care!" he shouted and hung up.

Kagome cursed mentally as she quickly pulled on her mini skirt, and zipped it. She had just slipped one hand through her shirt when someone knocked, no, _banged_ the door.

"Kagome, open up!"

Her left hand gotten stuck in the tight shirt and Kagome decided that was the last time she let Sango talked her into buying clothes she don't usually wear.

"Kagome open this door or I'll break it down!"

She gave a grunt of victory when she finally managed to get her hand through, and quickly stuffed her costume inside her oversized bag.

"Don't say I didn't warn you!" she heard Inuyasha gritted.

"No! Wait! I'm coming!" she shouted back before Inuyasha broke the poor door. She zipped her bag, fastened the clasps then approached the door, unlocking it.

Inuyasha pulled it open before she had the chance to grip the handle, "What were you thinking running away like that? What if something happened?"

"Inuyasha…." she countered panicky.

His hand suddenly gripped her upper arm. "I don't want you hurt, wench! That's why I told you to stay at that fu-"

"_Itai!_ Inuyasha, you're hurting me!"

He abruptly snatched his hand away like he was burned. "Sorry…," he breathed, eyes hidden beneath his bangs.

The young miko shook her head, "It's okay, I know you didn't mean it." She felt her abused arm throbbing but did not want to do anything that would upset the hanyou more.

He was silent.

She clenched her backpack. "You're wounded," she acknowledged his now bandaged wounds, supposedly by the medics. Had it really been that long since she locked herself in the bathroom?

"Keh, I'll live,"

"How's Sango?"

He turned away, "She's just awaken, she asked about you but Miroku told her you've already gone home."

She nodded though she knew Inuyasha couldn't see her. She noted to call Sango as soon as she was home, that if the girl hadn't already gone to sleep.

Inuyasha glanced over his shoulder, "Come on, I need to go back to the police, I don't trust that Hobo enough to leave the rest of the unit with him."

"Are… are they going to interrogate me?" she asked, not really successful in hiding her nervousness.

"Why? Is that a problem?"

She shook her head, "No, It's just… I just want to go home."

He turned back to her and nodded, "I'll drive you, but I still have some things to do."

She swallowed, she didn't want to be interrogated, "Please, Inuyasha… I'm really tired. Can I go home?" she met his gaze, trying to appeared as exhausted as she could, which wasn't very hard because she really _was_ tired!

He stared back at her for a second, "Have you been crying?"

Her hands automatically wiped her cheeks. "No," she replied lamely.

She still could feel his gaze, though now she was avoiding it.

Then she swore she heard him sighed, "Fine, let's go home. Just give me a minute to inform the others."

She nodded, "Thank you."

"Keh."

** TBC **

* * *

** Today's Artifact **

I got "Oathkeeper" from 'Kingdom Hearts' an RPG from Squaresoft and Disney. Originally it was supposed to be a key-blade, but I didn't want to use its original form in here, so I changed it into sword. I like that name, it sounded strong (at least mentally). Oathkeeper is my favorite sword in the game! "Oblivion" and "One-Winged-Angel" is good too, but I need something close to 'promise'.

I had other plans for Oathkeeper, but I still doubt whether I should use the sword again or not. What do you think?

* * *

**Translations **

Houshi : Buddhist monk

Miko : Shinto priestess

Gomen : Sorry

Hentai : pervert

Hanyou : half-demon

Youkai : Demon.

Jii-chan : grandpa

(Not many Japanese terms. Hm… that's new)

* * *

** Ramblings **

Oh this is definitely longer than last chap (approx: 4000 words); I don't know why I'm protesting though. Believe it or not, this chapter is so hard to write, I kept erasing and rewriting it all, the chapter turned out different than my original planning (especially the length), that made me sad, because that means I had to remove some un-needed events (hint, hint). I realized the lack of humor though, I had tried to 'lighten' Kagome's earlier phone calls… did it work?

Now let see… I wasn't planning to introduce 'the new character' in this chapter… though I wasn't really trying to keep him in secret; some of you had probably known who he was the moment I mentioned his eyes… hehehe . Don't worry, he'll appear again soon, I hope Inuyasha's ready for some jealousy! Kyahahaha! o laugh maniacally

* * *

Next chapter's artifact is ** Schneewittchen! **I had the rough idea, and some events I removed from this chapter. I'm still deciding though! 

One more thing;

**REVIEWS! **


	6. Snow White

Disclaimer: Nope, doesn't own Inuyasha… or the rest of the characters for that matter. Unless you want to buy me an Inuyasha for a b'day present! Wait, it's still months away. Hahaha.

A/N: Chapter Five... I feel so guilty for not updating for a very long time.. and what's worse is that I don't know when my next update will be. This chapter has been nesting in my hard drive for months, since I'm still trying to figure the next chapter. Thanks to all my reviewers that had encouraged me to continue writing. I hope the next update will be sooner.

-

**Angel Israfel **

**Chapter 5 **

**"Schneewittchen"**

**- **

_Dear Commander Takahashi, _

_Within a solitary castle beyond the looking glass, Snow White cried silently in forlorn; but before the queen of the night finally sat on her highest throne, an angel will descent and hides Snow White in the shadows. _

_Sincerely, _

**_ISRAFEL_**

**_- _**

The next morning, Inuyasha Takahashi sputtered on his coffee as he saw a rather large photograph printed on the front page of _The Shikon Daily News_. It took one eighth of the whole page, with an intimidating equally large title printed above, "Israfel in Close-Up at Last."

He stared dumbfounded at the image. Suiting the title, the photo captured a close up of Israfel, mask on. But, somehow the girl in the picture did not look like the Israfel he knew at all. _The Israfel_ he knew was a conceited girl, with an icy attitude, and impassive voice. The Israfel in the picture was nothing like that. Her eyes were dilated, her posture tense, and her expression… he thought he could see fear in her eyes. She looked just like a deer caught in headlight. Inuyasha shook his head to stop that train of thoughts, slightly annoyed that he had let Israfel got into his mind.

The hanyou continued scanning through the article; and his annoyance grew. The writer is one of those who were unable to write anything good of any people, twisting the sentence so bad you have to read between the lines to actually get the real facts. He disliked the writer already, but that was probably because the writing style reminded him to someone he rather not remember from his high school life.

A tiny voice broke his musings, "Inu-no-nii-chama?"

The hanyou turned to see Rin, his brother's _adopted_ little girl, standing in the doorway. She was staying the night because his brother was off on a business trip somewhere in the Caribbean. Rin was often sent to his place, since their parents were always busy with the firm.

The hanyou only raised his eyebrows to acknowledge that he had heard what the little girl had said.

Rin seemed to understand what he meant enough. "Inu-no-nii-chama, when is Sesshoumaru-sama goin' to come? Rin want to go home…," said the girl.

"He's on his way, Rin," Inuyasha replied, then mentioning the girl to come closer. "And I want you to eat your breakfast before he arrives."

Rin scrunched her nose cutely. "But I don't wanna… Inu-no-nii-chama's cooking _sucks_!" her already high voice pitched on the last word.

The hanyou sputtered on his coffee the second time that morning. He cough furiously before he finally regain his ability to talk, "Holy shi-," he stopped himself, "Rin, where did you get that word?"

Rin titled her head innocently, "Rin thought 'sucks' is for telling people you don't like something… is Rin wrong?"

"Yes! I mean, no- Yes!" the hanyou growled and shook his head, "'Sucks' is a bad word, Rin, Sesshoumaru is going to be mad if he hear you using it!"

The girl stared at him confusedly, "But you use it all the time, Inu-no-nii-chama!"

Inuyasha wanted to bang his head down the dining table, but decided against it. "I'm a bad person Rin; I'm allowed to use that word,"

Unexpectedly, the little girl giggled, "No you're not! Inu-no-nii-chama is cute! Sesshoumaru-sama sometimes used it too! He's not a bad person!"

_Now what?_ Inuyasha asked himself. "Uuhh…," Inuyasha reluctantly decided that it was time to use his final weapon, "…tell you what, Rin? If you promise not to use that word _in front of people_ again, you can have that chocolate sundae for breakfast!"

The girl's smile was so bright Inuyasha had to wince, "Can I? _Waiiii_!!! Thanks a lot, Inu-no-nii-chama!" she prepared herself to skip to the refrigerator.

Inuyasha held the back of her collar before she did, "I didn't hear your promise, Rin."

Rin giggled happily, "I promise!"

"Promise me what?" he tested. _Sneaky little girl._

"Promise not to say 'sucks' again in front of people!"

"Good," he released her, "now go get your breakfast before Sesshoumaru comes!"

The girl ran to get her ice cream, and Inuyasha shook his head helplessly. Maybe ice cream was not the best breakfast in the world, but hey, at least it had always managed to get him off baby-sitting troubles. The creator of ice cream must be surrounded with tons of annoying kids. He could only hope that his half brother would only sensed it as milk or else he would found himself in another lion's lair.

"Inu-no-nii-chama?" Rin called him again, poking her head from the kitchen door, her face decorated in chocolate.

"Yes, Rin?"

"Does this mean I can say 'sucks' in front of Ah-Un?"

This time Inuyasha really banged his head down the table.

--------------------------------------------

**_The Looking Glass Castle _**was one of the attractions hosted in the **_Musashi_****_ Theme Park_**. The place was a usual mirror labyrinth; a fairly enormous one with a pretty design but deadly maze. It was due to that fact that the castle was one of the least favorite places of interests in the theme park. People got lost inside far too easily.

Kagome had heard that the park's manager had tried many different ways to increase visitors, but all of them made little to no differences. As the final effort and gamble, the manager had placed a rare crystal in the center of the maze.

_The Schneewittchen_; a legendary blood-red princess-cut crystal that had been gone for centuries before it suddenly appeared in an illegal auction house a couple days ago… not that it was a highly known knowledge; Kagome just happened to read them out of a mission file given by Kaede that morning. Guess what? The Schneewittchen was her next target.

"…gome! Earth to Kagome! Do you read?"

Kagome snapped out of her trance and finally took notice of a hand waving left and right in front of her nose. She blinked automatically, "Eri…." She immediately recognized the speaker.

Eri brought her hand down and titled her head in confusion, "You okay? You looked kinda spaced out."

Kagome smiled apologetically, "Sorry, just a lot on my mind."

"Mou," her friend pouted, "We only come here once a year, and you're already tired?"

Kagome giggle at her friend's unique logic. She drew a deep breath and took in her surroundings; the Musashi Theme Park… she always goes there once a year with Ayumi, Yuka, and Eri. They were best friends during High school. Now that they had got into different universities (only Kagome and Eri went to _Heian__ University__ of Art_ together), their annual visit to the beloved theme park was very much cherished.

Kagome couldn't believe her luck. Her next target was right there near her. It was such a rare opportunity that she could observe her stage before doing the actual _performance_. She just needed to convince her friends to go to the Mirror Maze.

"Let's ride the coaster next!" said Eri excitedly.

Yuka gave a strangled cry and exclaimed, "Again?! Eri, we've rode it at least four times!"

"I can't take it anymore, she's too energetic…" complained Ayumi, panting.

Eri pouted, "Fine, just Kagome and me then…"

Kagome could only blink, "Eh?"

The energetic girl clasped her hands together and gave puppy dog eyes. "We'll ride the coaster again, right Kagome?"

"Ah… uhm…," Kagome did not know what to say. She really wanted to go to the Looking Glass Castle, but she did not want to disappoint her friend.

"Eri, don't you think four time's enough?" said Ayumi kindly.

"What do you mean? Of course four times isn't enough!" exclaimed Eri. "Besides," she grab a hold of Kagome's arm and gave a gentle tug, "Kagome's practically immune to those type of rides, she won't mind, right Kagome?"

_Yea_, Kagome thought, _compared to the usual free-falling as Israfel, a little cart dropping is next to nothing._ But her friends could not know about that. Kagome used her usual reason if she wants to get out of something; she faked illness. "I'm sorry, Eri, I think I'm a bit dizzy." Kagome already hated herself for lying to the girl.

"Oh," her friend's shoulder dropped a little.

Something tugged the young miko's heart. Kagome could handle lying, but disappointing was another story. "We'll ride again before we head home, okay?"

The energetic friend popped in happiness, "Really? Yuppie!" She went hyper again and dragged Yuka to the nearest cotton candy stand.

Kagome smiled. Now, she only needed to convince her friends about that mirror maze. Unconsciously, her gaze slipped towards a white tower. "So… how about we checked on the Mirror Maze next?"

Ayumi shook her head, "We can't Kagome."

"Eh?" the young miko looked at her friend confusedly. "Is it closed down?"

"There's a rumor about that castle," Yuka said from behind her.

Kagome turned her gaze again to the white castle. "What rumor?"

"It's in the Girls' Weekly!"

The young miko turned to see Eri and Yuka had returned with three bag of cotton candy. She received her share of the candy.

"They said that something in there was causing fainting problems among the visitors." said Eri, with a serious face.

_Fainting problems?_ Kagome frowned. "Never heard something about that… is it provable?" But then again, it would not be the first time that the Girls' Weekly had not told the truth.

Ayumi shrugged, "Well, it's a gossip magazine… no fun gossiping if the rumors are already factual, is it?"

Kagome nodded. Well, there goes her chance of observing her stage. She turned to her friends, "Well, it's okay I guess… there's still next year, right?"

"If they didn't close that castle already," murmured Yuka absently.

Ayumi nodded in agreement. "So, what's next?" she raised her voice, trying to lift up the mood.

"Roller coaster!" cried Eri excitedly.

Yuka slapped her forehead, "Not again…."

--------------------------------------------

The phone in Moriyama Myouga's office must have rung for the thirteenth time before Inuyasha finally did something intelligent; which was yanking the phone chord off.

He rolled the comfortable chair on which he was sitting away form the desk and stood up. He needed a break. Obviously isolating himself in a messy office did not help him gain light.

The large windows behind him rattled softly in the wind. He approached them and looked at the sky; a flock of white pigeons flew across the clear summer sky.

A line suddenly popped into his head;

_Within a solitary castle beyond the looking glass, Snow White cried silently in forlorn._

The hanyou's brows tangled in dissatisfaction. What the hell was Israfel thinking? Sending a fairy tale as a notice… She had never done something like that before.

…_ but before the queen of the night finally sat on her highest throne, an angel will descent and hides Snow White in the shadows. _

The lines kept going in his head like a Shinkansen. The story did not make sense… at all. Although, he never was fond of fairy tales, but Inuyasha still had the decency to know some of them; especially something prominent like the Snow White. The story was, after all, one of Rin's favorite.

However, Snow White in the letter was different than any version of Snow White he knew. He had done his research. Yes, he had. When Hojo came into his office empty-handedly, the hanyou had decided to take the matter into his own claws. But later on, all his research also turned out zero, nada, zip.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket and the caller ID identified Miroku. He almost rejected the call when he suddenly remembered that the Houshi might know of something he did not. Snow White was a girl, after all.

He flipped the phone open, "Miroku."

"Ah! Inuyasha! Where are you? The shop is insanely busy today, you're supposed to be here an hour ago!" the monk said in a desperate tone over the line.

"Something came up," the hanyou replied and before the houshi could say anything in return, he fired his question, "Say monk, do you know anything related to Snow White and…," he took a glance at the paper in his hand, "…a castle beyond a looking glass?"

There was a short silence as Miroku tried to digest the question. "Huh?" he replied smartly.

Inuyasha's eye brow twitched in annoyance. "Snow White and a castle beyond a looking glass," he repeated slowly.

"No, I heard you the first time," the houshi replied, "Just didn't expect that kind of question from you, my friend."

"It's a notice send by _her_," the hanyou emphasized the last word.

"Israfel? What does the letter say?"

Inuyasha recited the letter.

"Interesting," replied the Houshi before he fell silent again. The hanyou thought that the monk must be thinking of something.

After a couple of minutes, Inuyasha grew impatient and asked again, "So? You know anything about this version of Snow White?"

"Well," the monk finally began, "It's strange. There is no angel in Snow White, that's for sure."

"I know that, what do you have in mind?"

"I think," Miroku hesitated for a moment, "I think that is not a story, Yash."

The hanyou frowned, "What?"

"I think it's a riddle," the monk replied.

"A riddle," the hanyou repeated. That could make sense; it explained why her version of Snow White was completely strange.

"Yes," Miroku answered. "The first statement must be about the place and the artifact she was planning to steal."

_Within a solitary castle beyond the looking glass, Snow White cried silently in forlorn. _

"Okay," the hanyou nodded. "But it still explained nothing. This is a modern era! There's no castle around here. And I doubt that she was going to England just to steal some things."

"That's not true," his friend replied. "There're many castle in Shikon City."

Inuyasha frowned, "What are you talking about, monk? Quit stalling, I know you figured it out already."

"There's many Castle, Inuyasha, in the Musashi Theme Park."

"What?!" the hanyou exclaimed, "A theme Park? Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not," the monk shot defensively, "In fact, the Mirror Maze in that park was called 'the Looking Glass Castle'."

"No shit?"

"No shit," his friend affirmed. "And there has been an artifact called 'Snee-vitch-cuhn' displayed inside that maze for a while."

"Snee-with-what?"

The houshi gave a sigh. "Really Inuyasha, where were you during Frau Helga's German lecture in High School?"

"Don't start with me, monk! You're just talking too fast," the hanyou growled in irritation. "A Snee-what, what was that again?"

"Schnee-witt-chen," Miroku repeated slowly.

_Schneewittchen_… Snow White.

Suddenly everything made sense. It was a famous jewel crafted by a German artist a couple of centuries back.

"Moshi-moshi? Inuyasha? You still there?" called Miroku from the other side of the line.

"Yea," Inuyasha replied vaguely, distracted by the thoughts running through his head. "So, the next target is the Schneewittchen inside a mirror maze in the theme park."

"Yup, there can't be anything more logical than that," his friend affirmed.

Inuyasha nodded to himself; asking Miroku was certainly a right decision. "How the hell did you know any of these anyway?"

The houshi gave a sheepish laugh before answering, "Actually, I was planning to go there with my beloved Sango."

"She actually agrees?" Inuyasha asked in a barely masked amusement.

"No."

The hanyou snorted. Figures.

"Hey, it's not that she didn't want to!" his friend defended himself.

"Yea, right," the hanyou retorted, clearly not believing the houshi.

"It's because of that rumor the _Girls' Weekly_ started!"

The hanyou rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay. Whatever."

Miroku sighed sadly, "So, you're coming here soon?"

"Nope," Inuyasha replied promptly.

"What do you mean no?" the panic in his friend's tone could not be missed.

"Thanks for the help, Monk, but I gotta go."

"What do you mean you gotta go?" his friend retorted in alarm, "What about the shop?"

"Just tell Kagome to do something," the hanyou replied nonchalantly.

"Kagome? But-!!" Inuyasha did not hear the rest of his friend's sentence for he had closed his phone and turned it off. Finally he could have some peace and quiet.

Now that the target and the place were confirmed, the second sentence was not that hard to solve at all.

_'Queen of the night'_ obviously referred to the moon. That must have meant that _she_ would steal the thing before the middle of the night. Inuyasha nodded in satisfaction. The code was finally deciphered.

He smirked predatorily. "You put up quite a puzzle, little bird," he muttered. He felt like laughing in victory, but not that he would actually do it.

There was still the last riddle, but he already knew the answer to that part.

_'…an angel will descent and hides Snow White in shadows.' _Israfel wanted to affirm that she would not use the artifact for herself, but hide them.

But stealing was still stealing, and it was Inuyasha's job to stop her. Moreover, he still had not forgiven her for shooting Sango on their last encounter.

With a final nod to him self, Inuyasha pinned the silver letter on a white board and turned off the office lights.

_It's time to do some bird hunting._

-------------------------------------------- _  
_

The queen of the night had almost sat on her highest throne when Kagome, clad in her Israfel outfit, sneaked silently into the _Looking Glass Castle_.

It was quiet, _too quiet_. There was no police inside the maze, but Kagome knew that Inuyasha was there somewhere… waiting for her. Maybe the hanyou finally realized that the more people he brought, the easier she would slip away. It was slightly disappointing; that he would learn to do things fast. It marked the end of her easy raid.

But she would not be captured. Besides, mazes were her specialty; she had the gift to found around them easily.

The lights was on; another sign that the hanyou was expecting her. She made her way towards the center of the maze, and could not help but feel anxious. How many was stationed for -

Before she could finish that thought, a loud cry filled the air, and a police officer appeared before her, swinging his baton like a baseball club. She barely ducked the attack, and quickly took a couple of steps back.

Her heart was rushing wildly, but Kagome had no time to think. She rushed forward and in return, the police charged towards her.

Kagome did a flip in the air and neatly landed behind him. Before the man had the chance to turn around, she hit the back of his neck as hard has she could; knocking him out instantly.

Kagome stood there for a moment, eying the unconscious officer. Her heart was still beating insanely and her breath was ragged. She was not tired, but the encounter had surprised her. She had not been prepared for an ambush.

An _ambush_! Damn that hanyou for learning so fast. But then again, Inuyasha was a hunter by nature, so he might knew how to do his job better then Myouga. The idea of an ambush probably just popped up instinctively.

Kagome shook her head to clear her thoughts. She still had a job to complete. Let them ambush her, she would be prepared this time. Her path was not as smooth as she had thought. She had to face three more attacks, but basically repeated what happened to the first policeman. The weak point of an ambush attack was that the police were too busy to keep quiet to converse with each other and improvised the plan.

When she finally reached the center of the maze, the large room was silent and dark; contrary to her belief. The corridor had been bright that it took a while for her eyes to adjust with the darkness.

The jewel was in the center of the room, lying on the top of a short marble side-table and covered in glass. There was nothing else in the room; no other artifacts, no paintings, no police officers… not even infra-red sensors. Just a large room surrounded with mirrors, _the Schneewittchen_, and two opposite exit doors.

With all that, she definitely would not miss the crystal for anything else. How suspicious. As if somebody had deliberately set the room as such to invite attention. Obviously, it was a trap… or perhaps, another ambush?

He underestimated her again; that Inuyasha. Even though he was not in sight, she could feel him there. She could feel Inuyasha's youki… along with the evil aura coating the blood-red crystal.

Kagome debated if she should acknowledge his presence out loud, but decided she should not. If he was preparing for an ambush… then she better gave him the element of surprise.

Kagome closed her eyes, analyzing the spell put upon the jewel.

_Non-offensive. Low-type illusion magic. _

The worst it could do was feeding on human spirit while giving an illusion, possibly a nightmare. No; not a nightmare. There was a twist in the magic. It was a wishing jewel; probably it showed its victim a terribly beautiful dream that they would not want to wake up. How clever.

Kagome searched Inuyasha again. The hanyou was still there, somewhere in the room. She could still feel him. What should she do now? She could not risk purifying the item then and there. Summoning a purifying arrow took quite the time and energy, and an equal share of concentration. With Inuyasha still in the room, she simply could not risk getting caught while performing the spell.

Drawing a deep breath, the young miko walked calmly to the middle of the room, all her sense concentrated on him; waiting for his move.

She was in front of the crystal, and he gave no movement. Was he waiting for her to get hold of the jewel?

She lifted the glass covering the artifact; still, he did not move.

Kagome hold a hand in front of the crystal, focusing her energy upon it. She recited the sealing spell softly, _"Schlafen Sie bitte in Frieden und ein ruhigen; Bis ich zu Ihnen schreie, um aufzuwachen."_

As soon as she touched the jewel, Inuyasha move. He dashed towards her with a break-necking speed. She flipped away quickly, landing on the other side of the room. But the hanyou was suddenly in front of her.

_He's fast! _

Still not fully recovered from the last move, Kagome quickly crouched down and rolled to the side, missing the hands that were trying to devour herby millimeters.

The hanyou let out a snarl and pounce again.

The young miko barely had the time to stand up and dodge.

Inuyasha was fully prepared for that move.

Kagome gasped in shock as she was shoved to the mirror wall none too gently. She could feel the hanyou's claws prickling her shoulders.

"Caught you…," the hanyou hissed. His face was so close that she could feel his breath.

"You think so?" she retorted with what she hoped a mocking tone. Her hand that was holding the crystal tightened its grip instinctively.

"There's no escape, little bird…," Inuyasha gave her a winning smirk.

She scowled at both the nick name and his smirk, "I don't think so."

Kagome gave him her own smirk. It was a pity that he could not see it because of her mask

--------------------------------------------

Inuyasha had no idea what Israfel was playing. He had her right where he wanted; within his claws. He had expected her to kick and scream, struggling to be let go, but she did none of those. On the contrary, she was acting insanely calm about it. The fact did not sit well with his well-developed hunter mind. If he had not caught on her surprised gasp earlier, he would have thought that she had it all planned out.

"Why not?" asked the hanyou. Silently, he patted him self on the back for being able to hide his growing uncertainty.

A voice behind him suddenly spoke; "Because, I'm right behind you."

To say Inuyasha was surprised was an understatement. He was so shocked that as he quickly turned his head around to see what (or who) was behind him, his grip had loosened.

Israfel did not waste the opportunity and landed a pretty hard kick between his legs.

He doubled over in pain and released the girl completely.

"You forgot something, Commander," he heard a voice to his left and saw Israfel there at the entrance. Was she planning to go back using the path she came from?

He opened his mouth to say something.

"I am a magician," a familiar voice from his right stopped him.

His head whipped to his right, and what he saw threw him into shock the third time within a minute.

Another Israfel stood at the other exit across the room.

_Two?! What?_ His brain froze over the illogical sight he was seeing. His head whipping back and forth furiously between the two thief.

"…and a magician, always control his stage," said both the thieves simultaneously. Each girl threw a crystal to the air before catching it again as if to show him that they both had the Schneewitchen.

Before he could fully recover, the two Israfel gave a salute and exited the room in opposite direction.

Inuyasha quickly rose to his feet and was about to give a chase when he realized something; he did not know which girl he had to follow.

His brain clicked and he realized that it did not matter which Israfel he went after. He was too late. He quickly bolted out of the Mirror Maze, but by the time he greeted the cold night breeze, the thief had gone from sight.

Two piece of white feather lay on the ground, a silent evident to her flight.

He stood there, frozen.

This was the second time. The second time Israfel rendered him powerless while she escaped. He hated it. He hated himself for his lack of power. He hated her.

His fist flew to the nearest wall and shattered a giant mirror into pieces.

"KUSOOOOO!!!!" he roared into the silent, empty park.

Icy wind pierced Kagome's burning face as she soared away from the Looking Glass Castle; the Schneewittchen safely tucked inside her coat pocket. Her heart thundered wildly in her chest, her back was aching due to incomplete advance-magic.

That had been too close.

Inuyasha was a great deal faster than she originally anticipated. His speed was inhumane. Her rushing mind kept playing how he suddenly appeared in front of her after she dodged his first attack and kept coming back until he finally got her cornered. She swore he could disappear.

It was pure luck that she caught a glimpse of her own reflection on the mirror across the room. That had given her the idea of making a clone double; a _bushin_. Else she would have found her self chained and caged in no time.

Kagome found herself dreading their next encounter. The next time she might not be as lucky.

Her energy wings prickled and she felt a sharp pain ran down her spine like a lightning jolt. Kagome hold in a groan. The corner of her eyes caught some feathers withered from her wings, falling down to the rooftops, and glittering in the dark night.

_What a mess. _

Due to improper summoning time, her wings were incomplete and unstable. They were eating extra of her spiritual energy just to maintain its shape. Kagome doubt she would be able to walk the next morning. She was almost out of energy.

Not wanting to risk a broken bone, the young miko flew closer to the ground in case her wings suddenly gave up on her.

She needed to go home. _Fast_.

--------------------------------------------

A good ten feet below the flying thief, on a roof of common resident house, a figure stepped out from behind the shadows. The person picked a single feather that glittered on the dark loam.

The feather gave a weak pulse then scattered in shades of light, like a broken mirror.

"Your time's up, Kagome."

** TBC **

-------------------------------------------- **  
**

** Today's Artifact **

I decided to put in some German . "Schneewittchen" as stated in the chapter above, is "Snow White" in German. Oh by the way, Schneewittchen was one of my favorite Naruto fanfic .

-

**Dictionary**

Schneewittchen (sp: Snee-veet-ch-uhn) : Snow White

Houshi : Buddhist monk

Shinkansen : a high-speed train lines in Japan, running at 210 km/h (130 mph).

Gomen : Sorry

Hanyou : half-demon

Youki : Demon aura.

Kuso : Cursing word, like "Damn it!"

Moshi-moshi : A greeting to answering phone calls.

_Schlafen Sie bitte in Frieden und ein ruhigen; Bis ich zu Ihnen schreie, um aufzuwachen_ – Please sleep in peace and quiet; until I shout for you to awaken.

(german is _fun_ , I'll probably do some of these again)

-

** Ramblings **

I have the looooongeeeessst writer's block in this story! I completely lose interest in it! That was until I threw the plot out the window and decide to write whatever hell I want to write. It surely did the trick . This chapter is certainly easier to write than my poor attempt to fill in the plot line. But despite all that, I had difficulties in ending this chapter. Always not enough intrigue, not enough drama, not enough… something.

I experimented again with the western and eastern magic. In this chapter we have a peek to Kagome's both western and Eastern magic. The double body was actually a kage-bushin, I've watched too many Naruto episodes these days. Hehehe. And the sealing spell was in German, got that idea from "Fate/Stay night" good movie, it just suddenly popped out of the blue.

"The Castle beyond the Looking Glass" was the title of Inuyasha 2nd movie. I just can't help but put it in there. Teehee.

Next chapter's artifact is: **I don't know because I threw the papers to the garbage can! Mwahahahahha. **I had the rough idea though, and some events I removed from yet another chapter.

-

**REVIEWS!**

It made me sad that this story only get 27 reviews out of 5 chapters... coz usually I (myself) only read fanfic that has more than 10 review per chapter. Hahaha. What's wrong with this story, if you don't mind telling me so I can improve... please leave a comment. **  
**


End file.
